Can Virtual Reality Bring Climate Change Closer to Home? Bay Area Researchers Think So
California Adopts Tougher Methane Rule for Landfills to Curb Planetary Warming
California Leaders Blast Trump’s ‘Idiotic’ Plan to Kickstart Offshore Oil Drilling
Hundreds of California and Bay Area Hazardous Sites Could Face Future Flooding
California Senators Demand PPE, Greater Smoke Protections for Wildland Firefighters
California Moves to Fill the Void Left by the Federal Government on the World Stage
Bay Area Teen Uses Drones to Map the Wetlands He Grew Up Loving
California’s Ancient Glaciers Are Melting Away for the First Time in Human History
Newsom Signs Climate, Energy Bills Charting State Course Through Perilous ‘Mid-Transition’
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"content": "\u003cp>Imagine the first time you visit Nashville, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/tennessee\">Tennessee\u003c/a>, you commission a private helicopter tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You gaze down on the gleaming glass buildings of its contemporary skyline, its neighborhood ball fields, the main drags with brick concert venues, and the sparkling blue pools. But then the pilot tells you some of these neighborhoods have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/flooding\">flooded\u003c/a>, which has been getting worse due to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you go back home, do you think about Nashville? Do you care about the residents there, and how they’re dealing with climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at a lab in Stanford have found, through \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-21098-z\">early experiments\u003c/a>, that most people say yes, regardless of their political orientation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists did not pony up hundreds of thousands to fly people to Nashville and hire private helicopters. Instead, they immersed them in the city by using virtual reality headsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999016\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeremy N. Bailenson, director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, holds a virtual-reality headset he designed in 1999 during a demonstration at Stanford University on Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They found people felt more connected to the places where they traveled, even if they weren’t previously familiar with them, and that climate-related impacts like flooding felt more personally relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study suggests that instead of trying to engage people in climate change through fear or guilt, giving people agency to explore a place through immersive virtual reality can boost their concern for it, similar to how someone may feel after actually visiting a place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is big,” said Jeremy Bailenson, a Stanford professor who oversaw the study. “There’s lots of things we can start doing now. We can start making you care more about the people in that place. We can just make the Earth a little smaller.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shrinking ‘psychological’ distance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For social scientists studying climate change, there’s a reason why people tend to \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21992607/\">avoid\u003c/a> these issues. Researchers call it “psychological distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It refers to the distance we feel when it comes to climate change. With the exception of increasingly common local extreme weather, we think the impacts of climate change are happening elsewhere or feel different from the people it affects most severely. Some feel the worst effects won’t happen soon, and others are uncertain; they don’t know exactly how bad the results of inaction will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Augmented-reality headsets from Microsoft, Magic Leap, and XReal sit on display inside the Virtual Human Interaction Lab as a temporary “museum” at Stanford University. Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To attempt to shrink some of that distance, at least geographically, Stanford researchers outfitted participants with VR headsets. Participants then traveled, virtually, to places they identified as either familiar or unfamiliar to them, like the North Shore of Massachusetts, Miami or Nashville. They hovered above the terrain, as though in an aircraft, as they looked down on the homes, streets, and backyards below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While participants saw these regions as tranquil, sunny places, with no humans or cars disturbing the quiet, they heard a simple news story about the impacts of climate-induced flooding on the locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterwards, researchers found people cared more about the places they visited, even those that were unfamiliar, and the effects climate change is having on the locations. Concern for distant places carried through regardless of participants’ political orientation.[aside postID=science_1999358 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/CaliforniaLandfillMethaneGetty.jpg']Control groups heard similar news stories about flooding, but were shown still photographs of places both familiar and unfamiliar. They did not report caring in the same way as those who were immersed in VR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailenson is the founder of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, a research center studying the psychological and behavioral impacts of virtual and augmented reality, the latter of which overlays digital images onto the real world. He’s worked on experiments aimed at increasing people’s focus on climate change for more than a decade, having found some success. His team discovered that when people put on a VR headset and cut down a tree, feeling the vibration of the chainsaw, they use less paper afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also spent years and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” building virtual reality films that place the participant underwater, witnessing ocean acidification. When people put on the headset, these experiences changed their attitudes and behaviors. But when researchers installed the VR in a museum or other exhibit, people chose not to engage: It was too much doom and gloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea to simply travel to a new place through VR, hover above it, and check it out as a way of building a sense of connection came from the mind of Monique Santoso, a third-year doctoral student in Stanford’s communication department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999018\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1999018 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Santoso, a Ph.D. student in the Communication Department at Stanford, works with Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always been very fascinated with this idea of psychological distance,” Santoso said. “What exactly is it that makes these issues that are actually very important seem super far away from us?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santoso and her team, including her advisor Bailenson, used preexisting tools that are low-cost or free, like Google Earth and Fly, a VR app that allows you to explore the world by flying above it, plus a headset, to send people to another location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With these tools, “you can poke your head over your neighbor’s fence and see what’s on the other side. You can fly through New York City,” Bailenson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When coral bleaching feels personal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Santoso’s idea came from her own life experience. She grew up in a small coastal community in Indonesia. Her backyard was a beach, and she spent hours scuba diving. She was deeply aware of ocean acidification and its effects on the coral she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when she went abroad to an international high school in Armenia, she was baffled when other people didn’t want to talk about climate change and its consequences, despite studying it in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999013\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A WorldViz tracking camera mounted in the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab enables precise motion detection for immersive VR experiences. Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think people just felt like it was not applicable to them,” Santoso said. She got her undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, and further realized how far climate change was from people’s minds. Disheartened, Santoso looked for innovative ways to talk about an issue close to her heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found storytelling was effective; she’d often tell her own stories of coral. Then she read Bailenson’s book \u003cem>Experience on Demand\u003c/em>. She was so inspired by the central idea that virtual reality can be transformative that she applied to get her PhD at Stanford, focusing on using immersive technologies to foster empathy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘Wow, if this media could be done in scale, that could really potentially influence how people think and care about climate change,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the first of its kind, Santoso’s work still needs to be replicated, and across a much larger spectrum of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999014\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Santoso helps adjust a virtual reality headset for KQED reporter Laura Klivans during a demonstration at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab on Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The research involved only 163 participants, all of whom are Stanford students. The results, therefore, “are a little bit less generalizable,” said Emiliana Simon Thomas, the science director at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “it’s really provocative that [the] team can get those systematic changes in kind of people’s feelings of connection to a cause or to an idea,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santoso wants to look at how enduring these effects are, too, or if they would last longer if participants do this type of exercise on a few repeat occasions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the results of the first experiment hold, Santoso sees a future for this kind of VR in school curricula or for policymakers to have a better sense of the communities they represent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Can Virtual Reality Bring Climate Change Closer to Home? Bay Area Researchers Think So | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Imagine the first time you visit Nashville, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/tag/tennessee\">Tennessee\u003c/a>, you commission a private helicopter tour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You gaze down on the gleaming glass buildings of its contemporary skyline, its neighborhood ball fields, the main drags with brick concert venues, and the sparkling blue pools. But then the pilot tells you some of these neighborhoods have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/flooding\">flooded\u003c/a>, which has been getting worse due to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you go back home, do you think about Nashville? Do you care about the residents there, and how they’re dealing with climate change?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at a lab in Stanford have found, through \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-21098-z\">early experiments\u003c/a>, that most people say yes, regardless of their political orientation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists did not pony up hundreds of thousands to fly people to Nashville and hire private helicopters. Instead, they immersed them in the city by using virtual reality headsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999016\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-12-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeremy N. Bailenson, director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, holds a virtual-reality headset he designed in 1999 during a demonstration at Stanford University on Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They found people felt more connected to the places where they traveled, even if they weren’t previously familiar with them, and that climate-related impacts like flooding felt more personally relevant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study suggests that instead of trying to engage people in climate change through fear or guilt, giving people agency to explore a place through immersive virtual reality can boost their concern for it, similar to how someone may feel after actually visiting a place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is big,” said Jeremy Bailenson, a Stanford professor who oversaw the study. “There’s lots of things we can start doing now. We can start making you care more about the people in that place. We can just make the Earth a little smaller.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shrinking ‘psychological’ distance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For social scientists studying climate change, there’s a reason why people tend to \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21992607/\">avoid\u003c/a> these issues. Researchers call it “psychological distance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It refers to the distance we feel when it comes to climate change. With the exception of increasingly common local extreme weather, we think the impacts of climate change are happening elsewhere or feel different from the people it affects most severely. Some feel the worst effects won’t happen soon, and others are uncertain; they don’t know exactly how bad the results of inaction will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999017\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999017\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Augmented-reality headsets from Microsoft, Magic Leap, and XReal sit on display inside the Virtual Human Interaction Lab as a temporary “museum” at Stanford University. Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To attempt to shrink some of that distance, at least geographically, Stanford researchers outfitted participants with VR headsets. Participants then traveled, virtually, to places they identified as either familiar or unfamiliar to them, like the North Shore of Massachusetts, Miami or Nashville. They hovered above the terrain, as though in an aircraft, as they looked down on the homes, streets, and backyards below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While participants saw these regions as tranquil, sunny places, with no humans or cars disturbing the quiet, they heard a simple news story about the impacts of climate-induced flooding on the locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterwards, researchers found people cared more about the places they visited, even those that were unfamiliar, and the effects climate change is having on the locations. Concern for distant places carried through regardless of participants’ political orientation.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Control groups heard similar news stories about flooding, but were shown still photographs of places both familiar and unfamiliar. They did not report caring in the same way as those who were immersed in VR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bailenson is the founder of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, a research center studying the psychological and behavioral impacts of virtual and augmented reality, the latter of which overlays digital images onto the real world. He’s worked on experiments aimed at increasing people’s focus on climate change for more than a decade, having found some success. His team discovered that when people put on a VR headset and cut down a tree, feeling the vibration of the chainsaw, they use less paper afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also spent years and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” building virtual reality films that place the participant underwater, witnessing ocean acidification. When people put on the headset, these experiences changed their attitudes and behaviors. But when researchers installed the VR in a museum or other exhibit, people chose not to engage: It was too much doom and gloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea to simply travel to a new place through VR, hover above it, and check it out as a way of building a sense of connection came from the mind of Monique Santoso, a third-year doctoral student in Stanford’s communication department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999018\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1999018 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Santoso, a Ph.D. student in the Communication Department at Stanford, works with Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always been very fascinated with this idea of psychological distance,” Santoso said. “What exactly is it that makes these issues that are actually very important seem super far away from us?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santoso and her team, including her advisor Bailenson, used preexisting tools that are low-cost or free, like Google Earth and Fly, a VR app that allows you to explore the world by flying above it, plus a headset, to send people to another location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With these tools, “you can poke your head over your neighbor’s fence and see what’s on the other side. You can fly through New York City,” Bailenson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When coral bleaching feels personal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Santoso’s idea came from her own life experience. She grew up in a small coastal community in Indonesia. Her backyard was a beach, and she spent hours scuba diving. She was deeply aware of ocean acidification and its effects on the coral she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when she went abroad to an international high school in Armenia, she was baffled when other people didn’t want to talk about climate change and its consequences, despite studying it in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999013\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-4-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A WorldViz tracking camera mounted in the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab enables precise motion detection for immersive VR experiences. Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think people just felt like it was not applicable to them,” Santoso said. She got her undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, and further realized how far climate change was from people’s minds. Disheartened, Santoso looked for innovative ways to talk about an issue close to her heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found storytelling was effective; she’d often tell her own stories of coral. Then she read Bailenson’s book \u003cem>Experience on Demand\u003c/em>. She was so inspired by the central idea that virtual reality can be transformative that she applied to get her PhD at Stanford, focusing on using immersive technologies to foster empathy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, ‘Wow, if this media could be done in scale, that could really potentially influence how people think and care about climate change,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the first of its kind, Santoso’s work still needs to be replicated, and across a much larger spectrum of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999014\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999014\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/20251029_VIRTUAL-REALITY-_GH-5-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Santoso helps adjust a virtual reality headset for KQED reporter Laura Klivans during a demonstration at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab on Oct. 29, 2025, in Stanford. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The research involved only 163 participants, all of whom are Stanford students. The results, therefore, “are a little bit less generalizable,” said Emiliana Simon Thomas, the science director at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “it’s really provocative that [the] team can get those systematic changes in kind of people’s feelings of connection to a cause or to an idea,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santoso wants to look at how enduring these effects are, too, or if they would last longer if participants do this type of exercise on a few repeat occasions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the results of the first experiment hold, Santoso sees a future for this kind of VR in school curricula or for policymakers to have a better sense of the communities they represent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Your trash, or the place where it ends up, is also one of the most serious contributors to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/global-warming\">global warming\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After livestock, landfills are the second-largest source of methane emissions in California, responsible for more than 20% of the state’s output. That’s why the California Air Resources Board took action on Thursday to monitor and capture the landfill’s gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is generated from the breakdown of waste. Even though it’s a short-lived climate pollutant compared to long-lasting carbon dioxide, it severely exacerbates human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/landfill-methane-regulation\">new rules\u003c/a> will eventually require landfill operators to take action when a \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/californias-methane-satellite-helps-stop-10-large-leaks\">satellite\u003c/a> or airplane detects a methane leak, improve routine leak monitoring and reporting and mandate stronger action on recurring issues. The protections will add to a suite of regulations the state passed in 2010, which made California the first state to develop stricter standards than the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is another example of California’s leadership in reducing emissions and harmful climate-warming pollutants across all sources. With these updates, California will be able to more efficiently and effectively monitor methane sources to detect and remedy leaks quickly,” CARB Chair \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/lauren-sanchez\">Lauren Sanchez said \u003c/a>in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board reported that the state’s methane satellite, which passes by four to five times a week, has helped stop 10 large leaks since May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999362\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The landfill at 850 Singleton Road in San José, California, on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We believe that many operators would be interested in adopting these technologies to reduce the need for costly labor, especially as the number of mature technologies increases over time,” said air resources engineer Quinn Langfitt, who introduced the regulator’s proposal at a public hearing on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes, which will impact 188 landfills in the state, are part of meeting the state’s goal to reduce methane emissions by 40% below 2013 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said the new rules could reduce landfill emissions by 427,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. They would create $34 million in social benefits and cost landfills around $12 million, with the largest bearing the brunt of the price tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent report backed up the agency’s findings: By 2050, landfill emissions could be reduced by more than half and up to 64% by the end of the century, according to \u003ca href=\"https://industriouslabs.org/archive/press-release-common-sense-standards-can-deliver-cleaner-air-cut-california-landfill-methane\">a March analysis\u003c/a> by Industrious Labs. The group noted that California landfills emit 7.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of methane annually, which has “the same climate impact as driving 1.7 million cars for one year.”[aside postID=news_12061054 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/CHSugarCrockettGetty.jpg']But even though the board passed the new rules, they won’t go into effect immediately; staff will need to address a slew of clarifying questions raised by the public and board members during the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CARB board member Diane Takvorian supported the rule but pushed for a public-facing dashboard to show when and where emissions plumes are detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are asking for basic information,” Takvorian said, noting that technology is moving fast and that people need information now, not in years. She and others recommended an 18-month technology review after the rule goes into effect. They also suggested that the state and landfills share any data with the public as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have the data, we should share it,” board member Hector De La Torre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Kennedy, senior policy advocate for the Rural County Representatives of California, said he is “supportive of efforts to reduce emissions.” His group represents more than two-thirds of the landfills to which the standards would apply. Kennedy wants to ensure that the implementation is feasible for local governments “while protecting the communities that are close to those landfills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson from Waste Management, which does business as WM, representing facilities across the state, thanked staff for the updated plan, but said he hopes they will work with the industry on site-specific conditions, which of the new rules are “necessary and useful to diagnose conditions,” and a framework for using alternative monitoring technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1947347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1925px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1947347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/09/GettyImages-2154411-e1568322782842.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1925\" height=\"1258\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A worker watches as aluminum cans are emptied into a bailer at the Norcal Waste recycling facility on July 11, 2003, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Multiple residents from the Los Angeles community of Val Verde attended the meeting. They said they have suffered because of widespread noxious odors and hazardous gas emissions from the \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/chiquita-canyon-response/\">Chiquita Canyon Landfill\u003c/a> in recent years. Brandi Howse, who spoke during public comment, said she has lived about 1,000 feet from the landfill for 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howse said she has experienced clouds of methane and other gases at her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You become dizzy, disoriented, nauseous, you get headaches, burning sinuses and bloody noses,” Howse said. “We are left to be concerned with long-term effects. I know that myself and my neighbors to my left and my right have all had cancer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community members from the Kern County community of Avenal approached the podium to say that the landfill in their community is causing health concerns like cancer and people are leaving the town because of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smell is really bad,” said Leticia Luna, who moved to Avenal 15 years ago. “People are leaving our community because their homes are not safe, and when they leave, they find it difficult to sell because we live very close to the landfill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many groups applauded the new rule, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-williams-36820528b/\">Jane Williams\u003c/a>, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, said it is a “real first step,” and that CARB needs even stronger rules to prevent fires and large emission leaks at landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/landfill-methane-regulation\">new rules\u003c/a> will eventually require landfill operators to take action when a \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/californias-methane-satellite-helps-stop-10-large-leaks\">satellite\u003c/a> or airplane detects a methane leak, improve routine leak monitoring and reporting and mandate stronger action on recurring issues. The protections will add to a suite of regulations the state passed in 2010, which made California the first state to develop stricter standards than the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is another example of California’s leadership in reducing emissions and harmful climate-warming pollutants across all sources. With these updates, California will be able to more efficiently and effectively monitor methane sources to detect and remedy leaks quickly,” CARB Chair \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/lauren-sanchez\">Lauren Sanchez said \u003c/a>in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board reported that the state’s methane satellite, which passes by four to five times a week, has helped stop 10 large leaks since May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999362\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-09_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The landfill at 850 Singleton Road in San José, California, on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We believe that many operators would be interested in adopting these technologies to reduce the need for costly labor, especially as the number of mature technologies increases over time,” said air resources engineer Quinn Langfitt, who introduced the regulator’s proposal at a public hearing on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes, which will impact 188 landfills in the state, are part of meeting the state’s goal to reduce methane emissions by 40% below 2013 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said the new rules could reduce landfill emissions by 427,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. They would create $34 million in social benefits and cost landfills around $12 million, with the largest bearing the brunt of the price tag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent report backed up the agency’s findings: By 2050, landfill emissions could be reduced by more than half and up to 64% by the end of the century, according to \u003ca href=\"https://industriouslabs.org/archive/press-release-common-sense-standards-can-deliver-cleaner-air-cut-california-landfill-methane\">a March analysis\u003c/a> by Industrious Labs. The group noted that California landfills emit 7.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of methane annually, which has “the same climate impact as driving 1.7 million cars for one year.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But even though the board passed the new rules, they won’t go into effect immediately; staff will need to address a slew of clarifying questions raised by the public and board members during the hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CARB board member Diane Takvorian supported the rule but pushed for a public-facing dashboard to show when and where emissions plumes are detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are asking for basic information,” Takvorian said, noting that technology is moving fast and that people need information now, not in years. She and others recommended an 18-month technology review after the rule goes into effect. They also suggested that the state and landfills share any data with the public as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have the data, we should share it,” board member Hector De La Torre said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Kennedy, senior policy advocate for the Rural County Representatives of California, said he is “supportive of efforts to reduce emissions.” His group represents more than two-thirds of the landfills to which the standards would apply. Kennedy wants to ensure that the implementation is feasible for local governments “while protecting the communities that are close to those landfills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson from Waste Management, which does business as WM, representing facilities across the state, thanked staff for the updated plan, but said he hopes they will work with the industry on site-specific conditions, which of the new rules are “necessary and useful to diagnose conditions,” and a framework for using alternative monitoring technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1947347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1925px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1947347\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/09/GettyImages-2154411-e1568322782842.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1925\" height=\"1258\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A worker watches as aluminum cans are emptied into a bailer at the Norcal Waste recycling facility on July 11, 2003, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Multiple residents from the Los Angeles community of Val Verde attended the meeting. They said they have suffered because of widespread noxious odors and hazardous gas emissions from the \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/chiquita-canyon-response/\">Chiquita Canyon Landfill\u003c/a> in recent years. Brandi Howse, who spoke during public comment, said she has lived about 1,000 feet from the landfill for 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howse said she has experienced clouds of methane and other gases at her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You become dizzy, disoriented, nauseous, you get headaches, burning sinuses and bloody noses,” Howse said. “We are left to be concerned with long-term effects. I know that myself and my neighbors to my left and my right have all had cancer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community members from the Kern County community of Avenal approached the podium to say that the landfill in their community is causing health concerns like cancer and people are leaving the town because of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smell is really bad,” said Leticia Luna, who moved to Avenal 15 years ago. “People are leaving our community because their homes are not safe, and when they leave, they find it difficult to sell because we live very close to the landfill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many groups applauded the new rule, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-williams-36820528b/\">Jane Williams\u003c/a>, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, said it is a “real first step,” and that CARB needs even stronger rules to prevent fires and large emission leaks at landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Trump administration on Thursday released its plan to open up federal waters off the coast of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941182/california-and-offshore-drilling-like-oil-and-water\">to oil drilling\u003c/a>, taking a momentous step that state leaders and environmentalists had long expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Interior Department’s proposal, which sets up a direct confrontation with Sacramento on energy and climate change, would also allow drilling in federal waters off the coast of Alaska and the Southeastern U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would rip up a ban on new offshore drilling in most of these places that President Joe Biden signed a few weeks before he left office. President Trump signed an executive order repealing that ban on his first day in office, and last month, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Biden had \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-ban-offshore-drilling-vast-areas-was-illegal-court-rules-2025-10-03/\">overstepped his authority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials argued that the move to open federal waters to new oil and gas leases will help restore energy security and protect American jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1680px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999368\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1680\" height=\"1230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling.jpg 1680w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-768x562.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-1536x1125.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1680px) 100vw, 1680px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management map details where the agency wants to allow new oil and gas drilling. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said the plan would be “dead on arrival” and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999192/california-moves-to-fill-the-void-left-by-the-federal-government-on-the-world-stage\">promised attendees at an international climate conference\u003c/a> last week that California would immediately sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, his office quickly blasted the proposal as “idiotic,” “reckless” and said that it “endangers our coastal economy and communities and hurts the well-being of Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies have drilled very little oil \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035274/the-future-of-oil-drilling-off-californias-coast-could-be-at-stake-in-a-hearing-today\">off the coast of California\u003c/a> since the 1969 Union Oil platform blowout spilled 4.2 million barrels of crude into the waters 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, catalyzing an environmental movement.[aside postID=news_12063468 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/SealBeachOilRigGetty.jpg']Newsom’s press release included a photo of a bird covered in crude oil, with a caption that said, “If Trump gets his way, coming to a beach near you soon!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numerous California lawmakers, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jared Huffman, hastily convened a press call to push back on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla called it “another outrageous announcement” from an “out of control administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Jimmy Panetta compared the proposal to Trump’s controversial renovation of the White House. “The California coastline is not the East Wing of the White House,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democratic lawmakers are supporting legislation that would prohibit new oil and gas leases off the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public will have a 60-day window to comment on the plan when it appears in the Federal Register on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Trump administration on Thursday released its plan to open up federal waters off the coast of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941182/california-and-offshore-drilling-like-oil-and-water\">to oil drilling\u003c/a>, taking a momentous step that state leaders and environmentalists had long expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Interior Department’s proposal, which sets up a direct confrontation with Sacramento on energy and climate change, would also allow drilling in federal waters off the coast of Alaska and the Southeastern U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would rip up a ban on new offshore drilling in most of these places that President Joe Biden signed a few weeks before he left office. President Trump signed an executive order repealing that ban on his first day in office, and last month, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled Biden had \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-ban-offshore-drilling-vast-areas-was-illegal-court-rules-2025-10-03/\">overstepped his authority\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administration officials argued that the move to open federal waters to new oil and gas leases will help restore energy security and protect American jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1680px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999368\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1680\" height=\"1230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling.jpg 1680w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-768x562.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/OffshoreDrilling-1536x1125.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1680px) 100vw, 1680px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management map details where the agency wants to allow new oil and gas drilling. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said the plan would be “dead on arrival” and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999192/california-moves-to-fill-the-void-left-by-the-federal-government-on-the-world-stage\">promised attendees at an international climate conference\u003c/a> last week that California would immediately sue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, his office quickly blasted the proposal as “idiotic,” “reckless” and said that it “endangers our coastal economy and communities and hurts the well-being of Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies have drilled very little oil \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035274/the-future-of-oil-drilling-off-californias-coast-could-be-at-stake-in-a-hearing-today\">off the coast of California\u003c/a> since the 1969 Union Oil platform blowout spilled 4.2 million barrels of crude into the waters 6 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, catalyzing an environmental movement.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Newsom’s press release included a photo of a bird covered in crude oil, with a caption that said, “If Trump gets his way, coming to a beach near you soon!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numerous California lawmakers, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jared Huffman, hastily convened a press call to push back on the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Padilla called it “another outrageous announcement” from an “out of control administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Jimmy Panetta compared the proposal to Trump’s controversial renovation of the White House. “The California coastline is not the East Wing of the White House,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democratic lawmakers are supporting legislation that would prohibit new oil and gas leases off the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The public will have a 60-day window to comment on the plan when it appears in the Federal Register on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Hundreds of California and Bay Area Hazardous Sites Could Face Future Flooding",
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"headTitle": "Hundreds of California and Bay Area Hazardous Sites Could Face Future Flooding | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Power plants. Sewage treatment facilities. Fossil fuel ports. Radioactively contaminated sites. These are just a few of the 249 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979092/how-rising-sea-levels-could-push-up-a-toxic-soup-into-bay-area-neighborhoods\">hazardous sites\u003c/a> across the Bay Area that could flood as seas rise in the coming decades in the worst-case scenario, according to a new report published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers project that 5,500 hazardous sites across the nation could be at risk of coastal flooding by the end of the century. Around two-thirds of these facilities are at risk of coastal flooding within the next 25 years, during 100-year flood events. “Historically underserved communities” are more likely to live near hazardous sites prone to flooding, the scientists wrote in a preview of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers from Climate Central, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Nanjing University collaborated on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The motivation for the study is that sea level rise is rising quickly, often more than projected, and is anticipated to more than double by 2050 worldwide,” said \u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/people/rachel-morello-frosch\">Rachel Morello-Frosch\u003c/a>, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven states account for almost 80% of the hazardous sites at-risk by the end of the century. California is among them with 471 locations. That’s if human-caused climate change continues unchecked. State scientists predict more than a foot of bay rise by 2050 and over 6 feet by the end of the century in the \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/California-Sea-Level-Rise-Guidance-2024-508.pdf\">worst-case scenario\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list includes facilities that pose a risk to public health and communities: contaminated sites, former defense sites, businesses that handle sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas wells and other pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view of a very large container ship docked at a port.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1249\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-1020x664.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-768x500.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-1536x999.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of container ships docked at the Port of Oakland on March 6, 2019. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We could avoid some of this flooding if we were to stabilize and then reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said \u003ca href=\"https://ph.ucla.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/lara-cushing\">Lara Cushing\u003c/a>, associate professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sea level rise won’t just mean water lapping over shorelines. As the bay rises, it will push groundwater up inland. The researchers noted that there could be more or fewer potential problem sites, as the study did not account for groundwater rise or the increasing intensity of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous research examining rising groundwater found that more than 5,000 toxic sites may be \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983106/map-more-than-5000-toxic-sites-along-sf-bay-are-threatened-by-rising-groundwater-new-study-finds\">impacted along San Francisco Bay\u003c/a> alone. A KQED analysis from 2022 found that in the Bay Area community of West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1980255/a-lesson-in-discrimination-a-toxic-sea-level-rise-crisis-threatens-west-oakland\">more than 100 sites\u003c/a> are at risk from both rising seas and groundwater.[aside postID=news_12027540 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/BayFarmShoreline_001_qed-1020x680.jpg']The new count includes some of the region’s most contaminated sites, like the defunct \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999023/navy-took-11-months-to-alert-sf-to-airborne-plutonium-at-hunters-point-shipyard-site\">Hunters Point Naval Shipyard\u003c/a>. The U.S. Navy polluted the shipyard soil and groundwater with radioactive chemicals, heavy metals and petroleum fuels when it decontaminated ships, fouling the surface water and sediment in the San Francisco Bay, too. The Environmental Protection Agency declared it one of the nation’s most contaminated sites in 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team found that neighborhoods most at risk have a higher “proportion of renters, households living in poverty, residents who identify as Hispanic, linguistically isolated households, households without vehicles, seniors, and non-voters than neighborhoods without at-risk facilities,” the scientists wrote in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing said there could be as many as 300 fewer places at risk across the country if leaders and companies globally aggressively reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If people come into contact with floodwaters tainted by hazardous materials — sewage from wastewater treatment plants, heavy metals from refineries, or oils from fossil fuel facilities — the health impacts to people ramp up, said \u003ca href=\"https://sph.umd.edu/people/sacoby-wilson\">Sacoby Wilson\u003c/a>, a professor of global, environmental, and occupational health at the University of Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of a flood, the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979092/how-rising-sea-levels-could-push-up-a-toxic-soup-into-bay-area-neighborhoods\">toxic soup\u003c/a>” people may encounter could exacerbate health conditions. Wilson said exposure, depending on the chemical or sewage, during a flooding event near a hazardous site could lead to fevers, rashes, E. coli-related illness, and other symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have compounding vulnerability when it comes to their socioeconomic status and in some cases, the role of racism that led to that disproportionate burden,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997954/lawmakers-push-to-map-groundwater-before-it-swamps-americas-infrastructure\">introduced legislation\u003c/a> in July that, if passed, would \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4144/all-actions\">set aside $5 million\u003c/a> over the next year for the United States Geological Survey to study and map groundwater rise nationally through 2100. The agency would also need to identify priority areas that are at increased risk of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Power plants. Sewage treatment facilities. Fossil fuel ports. Radioactively contaminated sites. These are just a few of the 249 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979092/how-rising-sea-levels-could-push-up-a-toxic-soup-into-bay-area-neighborhoods\">hazardous sites\u003c/a> across the Bay Area that could flood as seas rise in the coming decades in the worst-case scenario, according to a new report published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers project that 5,500 hazardous sites across the nation could be at risk of coastal flooding by the end of the century. Around two-thirds of these facilities are at risk of coastal flooding within the next 25 years, during 100-year flood events. “Historically underserved communities” are more likely to live near hazardous sites prone to flooding, the scientists wrote in a preview of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers from Climate Central, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Nanjing University collaborated on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The motivation for the study is that sea level rise is rising quickly, often more than projected, and is anticipated to more than double by 2050 worldwide,” said \u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/people/rachel-morello-frosch\">Rachel Morello-Frosch\u003c/a>, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven states account for almost 80% of the hazardous sites at-risk by the end of the century. California is among them with 471 locations. That’s if human-caused climate change continues unchecked. State scientists predict more than a foot of bay rise by 2050 and over 6 feet by the end of the century in the \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/California-Sea-Level-Rise-Guidance-2024-508.pdf\">worst-case scenario\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list includes facilities that pose a risk to public health and communities: contaminated sites, former defense sites, businesses that handle sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas wells and other pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view of a very large container ship docked at a port.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1249\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-1020x664.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-768x500.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/RS45431_GettyImages-1134096431-qut-1-1536x999.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of container ships docked at the Port of Oakland on March 6, 2019. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We could avoid some of this flooding if we were to stabilize and then reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said \u003ca href=\"https://ph.ucla.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/lara-cushing\">Lara Cushing\u003c/a>, associate professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But sea level rise won’t just mean water lapping over shorelines. As the bay rises, it will push groundwater up inland. The researchers noted that there could be more or fewer potential problem sites, as the study did not account for groundwater rise or the increasing intensity of storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previous research examining rising groundwater found that more than 5,000 toxic sites may be \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983106/map-more-than-5000-toxic-sites-along-sf-bay-are-threatened-by-rising-groundwater-new-study-finds\">impacted along San Francisco Bay\u003c/a> alone. A KQED analysis from 2022 found that in the Bay Area community of West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1980255/a-lesson-in-discrimination-a-toxic-sea-level-rise-crisis-threatens-west-oakland\">more than 100 sites\u003c/a> are at risk from both rising seas and groundwater.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The new count includes some of the region’s most contaminated sites, like the defunct \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1999023/navy-took-11-months-to-alert-sf-to-airborne-plutonium-at-hunters-point-shipyard-site\">Hunters Point Naval Shipyard\u003c/a>. The U.S. Navy polluted the shipyard soil and groundwater with radioactive chemicals, heavy metals and petroleum fuels when it decontaminated ships, fouling the surface water and sediment in the San Francisco Bay, too. The Environmental Protection Agency declared it one of the nation’s most contaminated sites in 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team found that neighborhoods most at risk have a higher “proportion of renters, households living in poverty, residents who identify as Hispanic, linguistically isolated households, households without vehicles, seniors, and non-voters than neighborhoods without at-risk facilities,” the scientists wrote in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing said there could be as many as 300 fewer places at risk across the country if leaders and companies globally aggressively reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If people come into contact with floodwaters tainted by hazardous materials — sewage from wastewater treatment plants, heavy metals from refineries, or oils from fossil fuel facilities — the health impacts to people ramp up, said \u003ca href=\"https://sph.umd.edu/people/sacoby-wilson\">Sacoby Wilson\u003c/a>, a professor of global, environmental, and occupational health at the University of Maryland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of a flood, the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979092/how-rising-sea-levels-could-push-up-a-toxic-soup-into-bay-area-neighborhoods\">toxic soup\u003c/a>” people may encounter could exacerbate health conditions. Wilson said exposure, depending on the chemical or sewage, during a flooding event near a hazardous site could lead to fevers, rashes, E. coli-related illness, and other symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have compounding vulnerability when it comes to their socioeconomic status and in some cases, the role of racism that led to that disproportionate burden,” Wilson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997954/lawmakers-push-to-map-groundwater-before-it-swamps-americas-infrastructure\">introduced legislation\u003c/a> in July that, if passed, would \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4144/all-actions\">set aside $5 million\u003c/a> over the next year for the United States Geological Survey to study and map groundwater rise nationally through 2100. The agency would also need to identify priority areas that are at increased risk of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For decades, firefighters facing some of the state’s most destructive wildfires worked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911015/why-are-firefighters-battling-wildfires-without-masks\">without proper masks or respirators\u003c/a>, despite evidence showing long-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056655/wildfire-smoke-could-kill-over-5000-californians-a-year-by-2050-study-shows\">health risks from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why a bipartisan group of senators, including California Democrat Adam Schiff and Utah Republican John Curtis, introduced the first-ever respiratory protection standards for wildland firefighters on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Congress passes the bipartisan bill, it would ensure the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior “take long overdue steps to protect the health of these heroes,” the bill’s authors said in a press release. This legislation was co-sponsored by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Tim Sheehy (R-Montana).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildland firefighters deploy in the most extreme conditions to combat wildfires, preserve vital ecosystems, and save lives,” Padilla said in a press release. “These heroic men and women should not be forced to face long-term illness or premature death due to smoke exposure on the job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the U.S. Forest Service \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/wildfires-masks-firefighters.html\">banned\u003c/a> firefighters from wearing masks, arguing that they were too unwieldy for the job. In September, the Forest Service posted new guidance, paving the way for the new legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999319\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999319\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/AlexPadillaKQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Alex Padilla speaks at a press briefing in San Francisco on June 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.curtis.senate.gov/press-releases/sens-curtis-schiff-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-create-first-ever-respiratory-protection-requirements-for-federal-firefighters/\">Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act\u003c/a>, the agencies would work with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop appropriate respiratory protections — masks and other devices — tailored to the unique needs of wildland firefighters when smoke exposure exceeds exposure limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawmakers noted that wildland firefighters frequently work 16-hour shifts while traversing mountains, ash and debris — all while inhaling toxic smoke. They said there is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998209/breathing-poison-you-cant-outrun-wildfire-smoke\">a clear link\u003c/a> between wildfire smoke and adverse health impacts, including multiple forms of cancer. Firefighters have a life expectancy that is around \u003ca href=\"https://woods.stanford.edu/news/health-impacts-wildfire-smoke\">a decade shorter\u003c/a> than that of the average adult due to lung damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Firefighters are heroes, and it’s critical that we do everything possible to ensure they’re protected from the health risks associated with wildfires,” Sen. Adam Schiff said in a press release.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Joe Perez, a firefighter based out of Northern California, said he’s fought wildland fires like the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and others in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My whole career, I’ve worn a bandana or sometimes a facial shroud, which was standard practice,” he said. “But fires are burning thousands of homes, the contents of the homes and vehicles, and you’re sitting in that smoke for weeks at a time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez was on administrative leave for months in 2024 due to lung damage sustained in the years prior. A person he was dating at the time told him he needed to get checked out because she heard him wheezing, he said. “She could smell the burnt plastics and stuff coming out of my skin for days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He now lives with reactive airway disease, which resembles asthma, because of all the smoke he’s breathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perez is part of a wildland firefighter respiratory protection working group with Cal/OSHA, and now fights fires while wearing a mask. He said additional protections could have reduced his exposure to dangerous smoke and chemicals, but the culture of firefighting would have made it tough to be the only one wearing a mask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether I would have worn it is another question,” Perez said. “That’s the kind of cultural question that’s difficult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1941800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1941800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2029/05/RS12068_455629778-e1763427602401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor a backfire as they battle the King Fire on September 17, 2014, in Fresh Pond, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He thinks the aim of the legislation is a step in the right direction, but noted that while the agencies study the issue, firefighters will still have to deal with all the smoke without strong rules around masking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I get cancer or something else down the line, I can pretty much point to where it’s probably coming from,” Perez said of the risks firefighters take in breathing in smoke while on a blaze. “But if we can avoid making that sacrifice, especially when we’re in our later years and supposed to be enjoying our retirement and having grandkids and stuff, that feels like something that makes a lot of sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the September rule change, the Forest Service acknowledged that masks and respirators can protect firefighters against the particles in wildfire smoke. They’re now allowed to use \u003ca href=\"https://health.nifc.gov/node/9\">N95\u003c/a> respirators approved by federal workplace safety regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Respirators remain banned during arduous work, like digging trenches, to prevent overheating. Officials note that while N95 respirators filter out particles, they don’t protect against gases, vapors or all tiny solid particles, with no respirators on the market that filter out all inhalation hazards while also complying with federal regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several firefighter associations, unions and organizations, including the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, endorse the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For too long, the physical health and well-being of these responders has been ignored by their own agencies,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayfield added that “wildland firefighters’ lives literally depend on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>This week, people from around the world descended on Belém, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. They’re there for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/united-nations\">United Nations\u003c/a>’ annual climate summit, called COP30, so-named for the 30 years the meeting has been in existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But missing among them will be delegates from the federal government of the U.S., including President Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change. The lack of federal officials does not mean the country won’t be represented, however. Filling the void are leaders from states and cities alike. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998536/newsom-signs-climate-energy-bills-charting-state-course-through-perilous-mid-transition\">And California is leading the pack\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is a stable and reliable partner in low-carbon green growth,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said while attending the gathering along with several of his top climate leaders. “I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s embarrassing that the federal government is missing in action on this global crisis,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s Natural Resources Secretary, who’s in Brazil alongside Newsom this week and spoke with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the formal part of the conference involves delegates hammering out goals around reducing emissions and more, California has been working through other channels, from both informal meetings to signing memorandums of understanding with other countries, states, and cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact is that states and cities, led by California, are working to fill the void,” Crowfoot said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Secretary for Natural Resources State of California Wade Crowfoot speaks during a San Onofre lease agreement celebration at Trail 6 in San Onofre State Park on Monday, April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California has long punched above its weight in shaping U.S. environmental rules. In the late \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48168#:~:text=In%20the%20Air%20Quality%20Act,the%20United%20States%20in%202023\">1950s\u003c/a>, the state established clean air standards before the federal Clean Air Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">1970\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, the state has partnered with other countries like \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/MOU-Beijing_MEPB_China_ADA.pdf\">China\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.15.23-MOU.pdf\">Australia\u003c/a> on goals like improving air quality. Crowfoot said these agreements are both symbolic and substantive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In each instance, the policy and program staff of the different jurisdictions spends months, sometimes a couple of years, really identifying capacities or technologies or expertise that that one government has that the other government might be interested in,” Crowfoot said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FILE_7258.pdf\">Brazil\u003c/a> in September to help it set up a carbon market. Another recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998214/california-and-denmark-sign-comprehensive-agreement-on-climate-and-tech\">deal will bring Danish flood management expertise to California’s delta region\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12060700 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251016-DUBAICHOCOLATES-09-BL-KQED.jpg']Experts said agreements like these aren’t new, but they are more visible given the vacuum of federal climate leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom is not the only U.S. governor attending the conference or \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.org/cop30-local-leaders-forum/\">meetings\u003c/a> happening around the formal event. Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Tony Evers of Wisconsin also traveled to the climate event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impact of governors and mayors traveling to Brazil is to make sure that the rest of the global community recognizes how much progress the United States is still making in spite of the headwinds,” said Casey Katims, executive director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of American governors committed to keeping emissions low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, director of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, said the federal government is forfeiting leadership and future economic opportunities by not attending or taking action on climate. But, he said, non-nation actors do matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are critically important roles for states and companies and communities and even individuals. The whole thing is going to be successful only if we can figure out a way to get everybody moving in the same direction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s consistency, despite which political party has held the governor’s office, has been very important in moving the climate needle, Field said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Newsom has already signed even more agreements while in Brazil. One is with Colombia, to address, among other things, the potent greenhouse gas methane. And another is with Nigeria, to help increase the adoption of electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s representation at COP comes as President Trump has rolled back national climate policies. And, for the second time, the U.S. began the process of removing itself from the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Trump administration is not attending this year’s international climate conference, and said the president won’t pursue “vague climate goals.” That leaves the country’s states and cities in the limelight, and California is leading the pack. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This week, people from around the world descended on Belém, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. They’re there for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/united-nations\">United Nations\u003c/a>’ annual climate summit, called COP30, so-named for the 30 years the meeting has been in existence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But missing among them will be delegates from the federal government of the U.S., including President Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change. The lack of federal officials does not mean the country won’t be represented, however. Filling the void are leaders from states and cities alike. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998536/newsom-signs-climate-energy-bills-charting-state-course-through-perilous-mid-transition\">And California is leading the pack\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is a stable and reliable partner in low-carbon green growth,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said while attending the gathering along with several of his top climate leaders. “I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s embarrassing that the federal government is missing in action on this global crisis,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s Natural Resources Secretary, who’s in Brazil alongside Newsom this week and spoke with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the formal part of the conference involves delegates hammering out goals around reducing emissions and more, California has been working through other channels, from both informal meetings to signing memorandums of understanding with other countries, states, and cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact is that states and cities, led by California, are working to fill the void,” Crowfoot said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1999275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1999275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/11/WadeCrowfootGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Secretary for Natural Resources State of California Wade Crowfoot speaks during a San Onofre lease agreement celebration at Trail 6 in San Onofre State Park on Monday, April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California has long punched above its weight in shaping U.S. environmental rules. In the late \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48168#:~:text=In%20the%20Air%20Quality%20Act,the%20United%20States%20in%202023\">1950s\u003c/a>, the state established clean air standards before the federal Clean Air Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">1970\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, the state has partnered with other countries like \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/MOU-Beijing_MEPB_China_ADA.pdf\">China\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/8.15.23-MOU.pdf\">Australia\u003c/a> on goals like improving air quality. Crowfoot said these agreements are both symbolic and substantive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In each instance, the policy and program staff of the different jurisdictions spends months, sometimes a couple of years, really identifying capacities or technologies or expertise that that one government has that the other government might be interested in,” Crowfoot said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California partnered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FILE_7258.pdf\">Brazil\u003c/a> in September to help it set up a carbon market. Another recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998214/california-and-denmark-sign-comprehensive-agreement-on-climate-and-tech\">deal will bring Danish flood management expertise to California’s delta region\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Experts said agreements like these aren’t new, but they are more visible given the vacuum of federal climate leadership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom is not the only U.S. governor attending the conference or \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.org/cop30-local-leaders-forum/\">meetings\u003c/a> happening around the formal event. Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Tony Evers of Wisconsin also traveled to the climate event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impact of governors and mayors traveling to Brazil is to make sure that the rest of the global community recognizes how much progress the United States is still making in spite of the headwinds,” said Casey Katims, executive director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of American governors committed to keeping emissions low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, director of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, said the federal government is forfeiting leadership and future economic opportunities by not attending or taking action on climate. But, he said, non-nation actors do matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are critically important roles for states and companies and communities and even individuals. The whole thing is going to be successful only if we can figure out a way to get everybody moving in the same direction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s consistency, despite which political party has held the governor’s office, has been very important in moving the climate needle, Field said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Newsom has already signed even more agreements while in Brazil. One is with Colombia, to address, among other things, the potent greenhouse gas methane. And another is with Nigeria, to help increase the adoption of electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s representation at COP comes as President Trump has rolled back national climate policies. And, for the second time, the U.S. began the process of removing itself from the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bay-area-teen-uses-drones-to-map-the-wetlands-he-grew-up-loving",
"title": "Bay Area Teen Uses Drones to Map the Wetlands He Grew Up Loving",
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"content": "\u003cp>Srivathsan Ramanujam loves looking up at the sky from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sunnyvale\">Sunnyvale\u003c/a> Baylands Park and watching plane after plane soar overhead. The protected \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998966/rising-tides-drive-a-bay-area-push-to-bring-back-vanished-marshlands\">wetland\u003c/a>, which spans more than 100 acres, served as his most beloved childhood playground. As a kid, he enjoyed spotting red-tailed hawks soaring overhead and shorebirds skittering along the multicolored salt ponds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to come out here and even eat the local pickleweed, which I insisted tastes like French fries,” Ramanujam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the 17-year-old is a self-proclaimed outdoors and aviation nerd. His passion began during the pandemic, when Ramanujam’s dad bought him his first drone with a high-definition camera to keep him occupied and to get him outside. After learning how to fly it in his backyard, he eventually purchased a second drone and began exploring the nearby marshes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just so addictive,” Ramanujam said. “Wetlands are the first thing you see when you land in the Bay Area. The beautiful colors, red, pink, green.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s worried that rising sea levels, driven by human-caused climate change, could swallow the baylands he loves so dearly. Climate scientists predict that melting ice caps and expanding ocean waters could cause the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997729/oysters-snails-and-a-wall-that-protects-against-climate-change-one-tile-at-a-time\">seas to rise\u003c/a> anywhere between a foot by 2050 and more than six feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of drowning in fear, Ramanujam channeled his love for the bay into mapping more than 1,000 acres of wetlands across the South Bay. More than 80% of the Bay Area’s tidal wetlands were destroyed in the 19th and 20th centuries, and he wants to help decision-makers better understand what’s left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam holds his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On weekends and after school, Ramanujam sends his drones soaring over the marsh, allowing him to create high-definition maps, photos and videos that track elevation, erosion and plant health. He would like to show how the area has changed over time and identify the marshland areas most vulnerable to future flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many evenings, the Archbishop Mitty High School senior can be found at his computer, sorting through data and layering thousands of images to create maps that he publishes on his website and in videos on his YouTube channel. He convinced a few of his friends to help present his work to the City of Fremont’s Environmental Sustainability Commission back in June and to the Bay Conservation Development Commission in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is also partnering with researchers from San Jose State to map how coastal erosion is affecting underserved communities in the Monterey Bay region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998762\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998762\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam flies his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I hope these maps encourage youth to come into this field and try to save their backyard,” Ramanujam said. “I want the next generation to be able to enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramanujam presented his latest findings at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfestuary.org/state-of-the-estuary-conference/\">State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference\u003c/a> this week. He wants to encourage leaders to accelerate efforts to restore the Bay Area’s historic waterfront to “its original glory.” He believes his maps will help researchers as data becomes harder to find due to recent federal cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liv Juvera, an environmental planner with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, said she was excited to receive Ramanujam’s request to present a research poster at the conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had not heard directly from a high schooler before who was so eager to present,” Juvera said. “Him being so tenacious and eager to invest in conservation and restoration of the estuary through his work is singular.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam flies his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juvera said he could help planners better understand how to meet the regional goal of eventually restoring 100,000 acres of tidal marsh. Today, the Bay Area has met over half its goal. Ramanujam’s research can provide “tangential” insight into how to make communities “more resilient to sea level rise and by proxy flood risk reduction,” Juvera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Ramanujam was the only high schooler who presented a poster at the conference, she said other young people shared ideas, panels, sessions and research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hopes more young people will work to protect and restore San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more youth that get engaged in taking care of the estuary, the better,” Juvera said. “It’s exciting to see people who still want to do good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Srivathsan Ramanujam loves looking up at the sky from \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sunnyvale\">Sunnyvale\u003c/a> Baylands Park and watching plane after plane soar overhead. The protected \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1998966/rising-tides-drive-a-bay-area-push-to-bring-back-vanished-marshlands\">wetland\u003c/a>, which spans more than 100 acres, served as his most beloved childhood playground. As a kid, he enjoyed spotting red-tailed hawks soaring overhead and shorebirds skittering along the multicolored salt ponds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to come out here and even eat the local pickleweed, which I insisted tastes like French fries,” Ramanujam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the 17-year-old is a self-proclaimed outdoors and aviation nerd. His passion began during the pandemic, when Ramanujam’s dad bought him his first drone with a high-definition camera to keep him occupied and to get him outside. After learning how to fly it in his backyard, he eventually purchased a second drone and began exploring the nearby marshes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just so addictive,” Ramanujam said. “Wetlands are the first thing you see when you land in the Bay Area. The beautiful colors, red, pink, green.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s worried that rising sea levels, driven by human-caused climate change, could swallow the baylands he loves so dearly. Climate scientists predict that melting ice caps and expanding ocean waters could cause the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1997729/oysters-snails-and-a-wall-that-protects-against-climate-change-one-tile-at-a-time\">seas to rise\u003c/a> anywhere between a foot by 2050 and more than six feet by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of drowning in fear, Ramanujam channeled his love for the bay into mapping more than 1,000 acres of wetlands across the South Bay. More than 80% of the Bay Area’s tidal wetlands were destroyed in the 19th and 20th centuries, and he wants to help decision-makers better understand what’s left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998766\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam holds his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On weekends and after school, Ramanujam sends his drones soaring over the marsh, allowing him to create high-definition maps, photos and videos that track elevation, erosion and plant health. He would like to show how the area has changed over time and identify the marshland areas most vulnerable to future flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many evenings, the Archbishop Mitty High School senior can be found at his computer, sorting through data and layering thousands of images to create maps that he publishes on his website and in videos on his YouTube channel. He convinced a few of his friends to help present his work to the City of Fremont’s Environmental Sustainability Commission back in June and to the Bay Conservation Development Commission in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is also partnering with researchers from San Jose State to map how coastal erosion is affecting underserved communities in the Monterey Bay region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998762\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998762\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam flies his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I hope these maps encourage youth to come into this field and try to save their backyard,” Ramanujam said. “I want the next generation to be able to enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ramanujam presented his latest findings at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfestuary.org/state-of-the-estuary-conference/\">State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference\u003c/a> this week. He wants to encourage leaders to accelerate efforts to restore the Bay Area’s historic waterfront to “its original glory.” He believes his maps will help researchers as data becomes harder to find due to recent federal cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liv Juvera, an environmental planner with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, said she was excited to receive Ramanujam’s request to present a research poster at the conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had not heard directly from a high schooler before who was so eager to present,” Juvera said. “Him being so tenacious and eager to invest in conservation and restoration of the estuary through his work is singular.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/10/251008-DRONEMARSH-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Srivathsan Ramanujam flies his drone at Sunnyvale Baylands Park in Sunnyvale on Oct. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Juvera said he could help planners better understand how to meet the regional goal of eventually restoring 100,000 acres of tidal marsh. Today, the Bay Area has met over half its goal. Ramanujam’s research can provide “tangential” insight into how to make communities “more resilient to sea level rise and by proxy flood risk reduction,” Juvera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Ramanujam was the only high schooler who presented a poster at the conference, she said other young people shared ideas, panels, sessions and research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She hopes more young people will work to protect and restore San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The more youth that get engaged in taking care of the estuary, the better,” Juvera said. “It’s exciting to see people who still want to do good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California’s Ancient Glaciers Are Melting Away for the First Time in Human History",
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"content": "\u003cp>Glaciers in California’s mountains are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/3284/californias-vanishing-glaciers-a-defining-moment\">disappearing fast and will likely be gone\u003c/a> by the end of the century. Geologists found that these glaciers have been in place since before humans came to the Americas. This means there is no precedent in the last 20,000 years for their disappearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research challenges a previous assumption that California’s glaciers had waxed and waned into disappearance since the end of the last glacial period, offering a new understanding of their history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glaciers offer a touchstone — something we can literally hike to and touch — providing a link between our past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason this work is important is because climate change feels abstract and nebulous,” said Andrew Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author on a study\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx9442\"> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Science Advances\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “You hear about two degrees Celsius of warming. To most people, that’s just an imperceivable difference on their home thermostat. But our findings here are tangible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accompany the paper, Jones and his co-authors released comparative photographs showing before and after pictures. For instance, in the late 1880s, when John Muir was studying glacial flow with wooden stakes, the East Lyell Glacier in Yosemite covered a broad sweep of the mountainside. Today, it is just a few blobs clinging on in the hollows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998701\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998701\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maclure Glacier in Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Andrew Jones)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This glacier will be familiar to anyone who has hiked south from Tuolumne Meadows toward Donahue Pass. Backpackers who love the Sierra Nevada may be likewise familiar with other glaciers evaluated by the research team: Maclure, Conness and Palisade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers, however, had to access these glaciers without the benefit of trails. The fieldwork was grueling, Jones admitted with a laugh: “Man, the hiking was really difficult, honestly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team traversed glacial moraines — large deposits of rock out in front of glaciers — places that had been covered by ice until a few decades ago. From there, they collected samples of bedrock just below glaciers to determine, through isotopes, how long it had been since that rock was last exposed to sunlight. “The [moraines] are very loose, very treacherous. You step on a boulder and it slides,” said Jones. “You’re like, ‘Oh that’s not good.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones also said he had to laugh at the effort he and other members of the research team put into packing ultralight, bare bones gear. They did things like snap toothbrushes in half to save a few ounces, only to then carry out backpacks full of pounds of rock for testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was all the sacrifice of ultralight for none of the benefit,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To determine whether California’s glaciers had disappeared and reemerged since the last glacial maximum, the team used carbon-beryllium isotopes to evaluate those recently exposed rocks. Jones uses a battery analogy to explain. When the ice is gone and rock is exposed, the sun can “charge up” the rock. When the glacier comes back, the charge slowly recedes. But they found no “charge” at all in the glaciers tested in and around Yosemite.[aside postID=science_1992917 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/05/2014-05-12t120000z_163168172_gm1ea5d0e0o01_rtrmadp_3_climatechange-antarctica_wide-dc872b259e838b06facf859b790dcd5ad4af35cf-1020x573.jpg']“That tells us that rock has not seen the light of day for a very, very long time.” They estimate at least 10,000 years, probably 30,000 years. That’s before humans began living on this continent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This finding contrasts with the history of glaciers in the Swiss Alps, which have expanded, shrunk, expanded, and then, with global heating, begun to shrink again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the glaciers in the Sierra Nevada have shrunk so much that they no longer flow or move, which geologists consider “alive.” A slow slide downhill is a hallmark of normal glacial behavior — and it results in beautiful glacial carving of rock — but to do that, it has to be of a certain thickness. Many of California’s glaciers are now too small and thin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Sierra Nevada glaciers are all gone, as projected in 2100, the generation of kids living now will be the first humans ever to see the rocks below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glacial loss feels like emotional loss for many who love the mountains. But here, amid the sadness, there is room for perspective and hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mountain glaciers are more sensitive to climate signals than other indicators, like the polar ice sheets. Changing the trend of an ice sheet is a huge undertaking — like turning a colossal ship. A glacier, like Lyell, is comparatively a small boat — one that can turn quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our decisions really do matter in how many glaciers survive,” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we succeed in bringing down the concentration of warming gases in our atmosphere closer to levels we saw in the late 1980s (350 parts per million), glaciers globally would have a good shot at stabilizing, perhaps even starting to grow again. Just as their loss has heralded a heating planet, one that is suffering as if from a fever, their reappearance one day could be an early signal of a planet returning to health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Glaciers in California’s mountains are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/3284/californias-vanishing-glaciers-a-defining-moment\">disappearing fast and will likely be gone\u003c/a> by the end of the century. Geologists found that these glaciers have been in place since before humans came to the Americas. This means there is no precedent in the last 20,000 years for their disappearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research challenges a previous assumption that California’s glaciers had waxed and waned into disappearance since the end of the last glacial period, offering a new understanding of their history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glaciers offer a touchstone — something we can literally hike to and touch — providing a link between our past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason this work is important is because climate change feels abstract and nebulous,” said Andrew Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author on a study\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx9442\"> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Science Advances\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “You hear about two degrees Celsius of warming. To most people, that’s just an imperceivable difference on their home thermostat. But our findings here are tangible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accompany the paper, Jones and his co-authors released comparative photographs showing before and after pictures. For instance, in the late 1880s, when John Muir was studying glacial flow with wooden stakes, the East Lyell Glacier in Yosemite covered a broad sweep of the mountainside. Today, it is just a few blobs clinging on in the hollows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1998701\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1998701\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/250930-MACLURE-GLACIER-01-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maclure Glacier in Yosemite National Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Andrew Jones)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This glacier will be familiar to anyone who has hiked south from Tuolumne Meadows toward Donahue Pass. Backpackers who love the Sierra Nevada may be likewise familiar with other glaciers evaluated by the research team: Maclure, Conness and Palisade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers, however, had to access these glaciers without the benefit of trails. The fieldwork was grueling, Jones admitted with a laugh: “Man, the hiking was really difficult, honestly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research team traversed glacial moraines — large deposits of rock out in front of glaciers — places that had been covered by ice until a few decades ago. From there, they collected samples of bedrock just below glaciers to determine, through isotopes, how long it had been since that rock was last exposed to sunlight. “The [moraines] are very loose, very treacherous. You step on a boulder and it slides,” said Jones. “You’re like, ‘Oh that’s not good.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones also said he had to laugh at the effort he and other members of the research team put into packing ultralight, bare bones gear. They did things like snap toothbrushes in half to save a few ounces, only to then carry out backpacks full of pounds of rock for testing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was all the sacrifice of ultralight for none of the benefit,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To determine whether California’s glaciers had disappeared and reemerged since the last glacial maximum, the team used carbon-beryllium isotopes to evaluate those recently exposed rocks. Jones uses a battery analogy to explain. When the ice is gone and rock is exposed, the sun can “charge up” the rock. When the glacier comes back, the charge slowly recedes. But they found no “charge” at all in the glaciers tested in and around Yosemite.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“That tells us that rock has not seen the light of day for a very, very long time.” They estimate at least 10,000 years, probably 30,000 years. That’s before humans began living on this continent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This finding contrasts with the history of glaciers in the Swiss Alps, which have expanded, shrunk, expanded, and then, with global heating, begun to shrink again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the glaciers in the Sierra Nevada have shrunk so much that they no longer flow or move, which geologists consider “alive.” A slow slide downhill is a hallmark of normal glacial behavior — and it results in beautiful glacial carving of rock — but to do that, it has to be of a certain thickness. Many of California’s glaciers are now too small and thin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Sierra Nevada glaciers are all gone, as projected in 2100, the generation of kids living now will be the first humans ever to see the rocks below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Glacial loss feels like emotional loss for many who love the mountains. But here, amid the sadness, there is room for perspective and hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mountain glaciers are more sensitive to climate signals than other indicators, like the polar ice sheets. Changing the trend of an ice sheet is a huge undertaking — like turning a colossal ship. A glacier, like Lyell, is comparatively a small boat — one that can turn quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our decisions really do matter in how many glaciers survive,” Jones said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we succeed in bringing down the concentration of warming gases in our atmosphere closer to levels we saw in the late 1980s (350 parts per million), glaciers globally would have a good shot at stabilizing, perhaps even starting to grow again. Just as their loss has heralded a heating planet, one that is suffering as if from a fever, their reappearance one day could be an early signal of a planet returning to health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California embarked on a new phase of climate leadership on Friday, as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055461/california-lawmakers-reach-last-minute-deals-on-climate-energy\">package of bills\u003c/a> aimed at charting the state’s course through a perilous energy transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation includes an extension of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053867/affordability-concerns-at-center-of-cap-and-trade-renewal-debate\">marquee program\u003c/a> to reduce pollution from refineries and power plants, reaffirming the state’s commitment to limit planet-warming emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changes to that cap-and-trade program — and accompanying bills on electricity and fuel supply — reflect a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055786/energy-climate-and-ai-regulation-take-center-stage-in-sacramento\">struggle\u003c/a> by lawmakers to manage both the impacts of climate change and the move away from fossil fuels, which each threaten to drive up energy costs for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to effectively transition,” Newsom said before signing the bills at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “This is not an ideological endeavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in the practical application business,” he said. “We have got to manifest our ideals and our goals. And so this lays it out, but it lays it out without laying tracks over folks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has reached a unique moment, state leaders and analysts argue. The state is far enough along in its transition away from fossil fuels that it needs to maintain two energy delivery systems at once: oil and gas on one side and electricity built on carbon-free energy on the other. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023129/how-climate-change-complicating-california-democrats-affordability-agenda\">juggling act\u003c/a> is costly, messy, and requires intentional planning and often unsavory compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1927246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1927246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/GettyImages-71394652-e1758301123123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck carries a shipping container past an oil refinery at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on July 6, 2006, in Long Beach, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state of limbo, which will likely last decades in California, has been labeled “\u003ca href=\"https://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Grubert-and-Hastings-Simon-2022-Designing-the-mid-transition-A-review-of-medium-t.pdf\">mid-transition\u003c/a>” by Emily Grubert, a sustainable energy researcher at the University of Notre Dame. Grubert said California is among the first places “actually dealing with many of these questions of managed transition” away from fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How the state of California deals with the transition of [oil] refining really is going to inform the way that many, many other transitions occur,” Grubert told lawmakers last month, including how the state will move away from gas and towards electricity for tasks like heating and cooling homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and fellow Democrats faced a bevy of challenges as they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052825/whats-next-for-californias-landmark-climate-program\">negotiated\u003c/a> the climate package in the waning hours of the legislative year. Voters remain anxious about rising energy costs. Two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910826/california-considers-more-drilling-and-other-concessions-to-big-oil-as-gas-prices-rise\">refineries\u003c/a>, Phillips 66 in Los Angeles and Valero in Benicia, announced plans to close, threatening a spike in gas prices. And wildfires made more intense by climate change have devastated California communities and driven up insurance and electricity \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027878/california-lawmakers-aim-lower-electricity-bills-but-theyll-face-tough-choices\">costs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Balancing acts, political compromises\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The five bills Newsom signed on Friday reflect the delicate balancing act facing lawmakers during this transitory period. The agreements brought both wins and losses for the state’s powerful utilities and oil and gas companies — and left many environmental justice advocates frustrated over the lack of emphasis on reducing local air pollution in low-income communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had five huge planes all circling, and we had to make sure they didn’t crash into each other,” said Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat representing the Peninsula. “Really, the feeling was they were all going to land or none of them were going to land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971419\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wilmington ARCO refinery is seen before dawn on Dec. 19, 2003, in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under Assembly Bill 1207, companies will face more strict pollution limits each year until 2045 — that’s the “cap” in the renamed Cap-and-Invest program. State regulators will more closely monitor the financial help oil companies get to follow the program’s rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the most important U.S. climate policy for the foreseeable future,” said Kyle Meng, a professor at UC Santa Barbara. “In the absence of any climate action from D.C., for California to signal this commitment for two decades, that’s a really big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a separate bill, Senate Bill 237, eases regulations on oil drilling in Kern County and gives the governor new powers to loosen clean fuel standards if gas prices spike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The compromise is an attempt to appease both environmental advocates and oil companies and address the upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036695/shocking-news-valero-announces-plans-to-end-operations-at-benicia-refinery\">refinery closures\u003c/a>. The state’s demand for gas has consistently declined in recent years, peaking in 2017, according to California Energy Commission data. But supply of both crude and refined oil from California is dropping far faster, leaving a yawning gap that is concerning to state leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to legislative concessions, the Energy Commission voted last month to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/oil-gas-newsom-profits-prices-california-435d63922284a93130c40bac9558f093\">delay\u003c/a> capping oil company profits until at least 2030 — an about-face from two years earlier, when Newsom called a special session that resulted in that very law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken all together, the package of bills and policy changes is by no means a reversal of the state’s aggressive plan to wean itself off of fossil fuels. But the course correction showed that some leading Democrats are worried that the pace of its transition was too rapid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I probably voted for every bill that went through the legislature to get us off of fossil fuels,” said Lorena Gonzalez, a former Assembly member, while speaking at a Public Policy Institute of California conference last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was very much and am very supportive of a transition to a new energy economy,” said Gonzalez, who is now president of the California Labor Federation. “That being said, the legislature, myself included, rushed this idea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Real-time policy for real-time problems\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Senate Bill 254 adds $18 billion to the state’s Wildfire Fund, which utilities can tap into to stave off bankruptcy if their equipment has been found to spark a wildfire. With Southern California Edison facing potential exposure from the Eaton Fire, lawmakers leveraged the desire from utilities to replenish the fund to include reforms that aim to lower electricity rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley professor Meredith Fowlie said Senate Bill 254 is an example of California acting as a laboratory for policies to make electricity more affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1995288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1995288\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Department of Water and Power (DWP) San Fernando Valley Generating Station on Dec. 11, 2008, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of this policy is being made in real time in response to challenges that are manifesting in real time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Bill 254 will allow the state to issue bonds to finance the construction of transmission lines at a cheaper price than utilities. The legislation also gives regulators more tools to rein in the money power companies spend to prevent wildfires, a key driver of higher electricity rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new cap-and-invest program will shift the biannual “climate credit” rebate that appears on customers’ bills to the hottest months of the year when Californians are using the most electricity. It will also boost the credit on electric bills by reducing it on gas bills — further incentivizing the energy transition at a household level.[aside postID=news_12056655 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/08/Middlebrook-2-1020x765.jpg']“You’ve got these too-high electricity prices distorting consumer incentives,” Fowlie said. “So when I’m choosing between a heat pump and a natural gas furnace, electricity sure looks expensive. It would be really nice to bring the differences and those prices closer to the true differences in costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some analysts said Newsom and legislative leaders failed to strike the right balance in the climate-energy deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been producing oil for almost 140 years,” said Paasha Mahdavi, an associate professor in political science at UC Santa Barbara. Allowing the companies to drill more in Kern County is like “squeezing a lemon at its dear end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahdavi said the easier-to-reach fuel has already been extracted there, which means companies must rely on techniques that are energy-intensive. This creates significant pollution for nearby communities and the planet overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through his own \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60e06de426582d24ad4e2ab7/t/68bb4c15f1beef2669830de8/1757105173357/Mahdavi+-+Analysis+of+Californias+oil+refineries+amid+declining+demand.pdf\">analysis\u003c/a>, Mahdavi found that gasoline demand could be met by supply from in-state refineries and by imports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahdavi is on the side of a coalition of environmental justice groups that \u003ca href=\"https://mavensnotebook.com/2025/09/11/press-release-ca-environmental-groups-decry-this-year-as-the-states-worst-legislative-year-for-the-environment-and-climate-in-recent-history/\">labeled \u003c/a>the outcome “the worst legislative year for climate and environmental protection in recent memory.” The coalition said the balancing act between climate leadership and consumer prices failed to reduce\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050096/californias-clean-air-program-for-polluted-communities-faces-crossroads\"> local pollution\u003c/a> for Californians who live near hotspots such as refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a real responsibility to ensure that the fourth largest economy in the world, a progressive leader on climate, is really committed to not only climate policies, but ensuring that they’re deployed equitably,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California embarked on a new phase of climate leadership on Friday, as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055461/california-lawmakers-reach-last-minute-deals-on-climate-energy\">package of bills\u003c/a> aimed at charting the state’s course through a perilous energy transition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation includes an extension of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053867/affordability-concerns-at-center-of-cap-and-trade-renewal-debate\">marquee program\u003c/a> to reduce pollution from refineries and power plants, reaffirming the state’s commitment to limit planet-warming emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But changes to that cap-and-trade program — and accompanying bills on electricity and fuel supply — reflect a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055786/energy-climate-and-ai-regulation-take-center-stage-in-sacramento\">struggle\u003c/a> by lawmakers to manage both the impacts of climate change and the move away from fossil fuels, which each threaten to drive up energy costs for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to effectively transition,” Newsom said before signing the bills at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “This is not an ideological endeavor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are in the practical application business,” he said. “We have got to manifest our ideals and our goals. And so this lays it out, but it lays it out without laying tracks over folks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has reached a unique moment, state leaders and analysts argue. The state is far enough along in its transition away from fossil fuels that it needs to maintain two energy delivery systems at once: oil and gas on one side and electricity built on carbon-free energy on the other. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023129/how-climate-change-complicating-california-democrats-affordability-agenda\">juggling act\u003c/a> is costly, messy, and requires intentional planning and often unsavory compromises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1927246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1927246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/07/GettyImages-71394652-e1758301123123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck carries a shipping container past an oil refinery at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on July 6, 2006, in Long Beach, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state of limbo, which will likely last decades in California, has been labeled “\u003ca href=\"https://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Grubert-and-Hastings-Simon-2022-Designing-the-mid-transition-A-review-of-medium-t.pdf\">mid-transition\u003c/a>” by Emily Grubert, a sustainable energy researcher at the University of Notre Dame. Grubert said California is among the first places “actually dealing with many of these questions of managed transition” away from fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How the state of California deals with the transition of [oil] refining really is going to inform the way that many, many other transitions occur,” Grubert told lawmakers last month, including how the state will move away from gas and towards electricity for tasks like heating and cooling homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and fellow Democrats faced a bevy of challenges as they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052825/whats-next-for-californias-landmark-climate-program\">negotiated\u003c/a> the climate package in the waning hours of the legislative year. Voters remain anxious about rising energy costs. Two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910826/california-considers-more-drilling-and-other-concessions-to-big-oil-as-gas-prices-rise\">refineries\u003c/a>, Phillips 66 in Los Angeles and Valero in Benicia, announced plans to close, threatening a spike in gas prices. And wildfires made more intense by climate change have devastated California communities and driven up insurance and electricity \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027878/california-lawmakers-aim-lower-electricity-bills-but-theyll-face-tough-choices\">costs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Balancing acts, political compromises\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The five bills Newsom signed on Friday reflect the delicate balancing act facing lawmakers during this transitory period. The agreements brought both wins and losses for the state’s powerful utilities and oil and gas companies — and left many environmental justice advocates frustrated over the lack of emphasis on reducing local air pollution in low-income communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had five huge planes all circling, and we had to make sure they didn’t crash into each other,” said Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat representing the Peninsula. “Really, the feeling was they were all going to land or none of them were going to land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971419\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/RS46184_GettyImages-2823144-qut-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wilmington ARCO refinery is seen before dawn on Dec. 19, 2003, in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under Assembly Bill 1207, companies will face more strict pollution limits each year until 2045 — that’s the “cap” in the renamed Cap-and-Invest program. State regulators will more closely monitor the financial help oil companies get to follow the program’s rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the most important U.S. climate policy for the foreseeable future,” said Kyle Meng, a professor at UC Santa Barbara. “In the absence of any climate action from D.C., for California to signal this commitment for two decades, that’s a really big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a separate bill, Senate Bill 237, eases regulations on oil drilling in Kern County and gives the governor new powers to loosen clean fuel standards if gas prices spike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The compromise is an attempt to appease both environmental advocates and oil companies and address the upcoming \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036695/shocking-news-valero-announces-plans-to-end-operations-at-benicia-refinery\">refinery closures\u003c/a>. The state’s demand for gas has consistently declined in recent years, peaking in 2017, according to California Energy Commission data. But supply of both crude and refined oil from California is dropping far faster, leaving a yawning gap that is concerning to state leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to legislative concessions, the Energy Commission voted last month to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/oil-gas-newsom-profits-prices-california-435d63922284a93130c40bac9558f093\">delay\u003c/a> capping oil company profits until at least 2030 — an about-face from two years earlier, when Newsom called a special session that resulted in that very law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken all together, the package of bills and policy changes is by no means a reversal of the state’s aggressive plan to wean itself off of fossil fuels. But the course correction showed that some leading Democrats are worried that the pace of its transition was too rapid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I probably voted for every bill that went through the legislature to get us off of fossil fuels,” said Lorena Gonzalez, a former Assembly member, while speaking at a Public Policy Institute of California conference last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was very much and am very supportive of a transition to a new energy economy,” said Gonzalez, who is now president of the California Labor Federation. “That being said, the legislature, myself included, rushed this idea.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Real-time policy for real-time problems\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Senate Bill 254 adds $18 billion to the state’s Wildfire Fund, which utilities can tap into to stave off bankruptcy if their equipment has been found to spark a wildfire. With Southern California Edison facing potential exposure from the Eaton Fire, lawmakers leveraged the desire from utilities to replenish the fund to include reforms that aim to lower electricity rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley professor Meredith Fowlie said Senate Bill 254 is an example of California acting as a laboratory for policies to make electricity more affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1995288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1995288\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/12/84004858_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Department of Water and Power (DWP) San Fernando Valley Generating Station on Dec. 11, 2008, in Sun Valley, California. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A lot of this policy is being made in real time in response to challenges that are manifesting in real time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Senate Bill 254 will allow the state to issue bonds to finance the construction of transmission lines at a cheaper price than utilities. The legislation also gives regulators more tools to rein in the money power companies spend to prevent wildfires, a key driver of higher electricity rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new cap-and-invest program will shift the biannual “climate credit” rebate that appears on customers’ bills to the hottest months of the year when Californians are using the most electricity. It will also boost the credit on electric bills by reducing it on gas bills — further incentivizing the energy transition at a household level.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“You’ve got these too-high electricity prices distorting consumer incentives,” Fowlie said. “So when I’m choosing between a heat pump and a natural gas furnace, electricity sure looks expensive. It would be really nice to bring the differences and those prices closer to the true differences in costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some analysts said Newsom and legislative leaders failed to strike the right balance in the climate-energy deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been producing oil for almost 140 years,” said Paasha Mahdavi, an associate professor in political science at UC Santa Barbara. Allowing the companies to drill more in Kern County is like “squeezing a lemon at its dear end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahdavi said the easier-to-reach fuel has already been extracted there, which means companies must rely on techniques that are energy-intensive. This creates significant pollution for nearby communities and the planet overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through his own \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60e06de426582d24ad4e2ab7/t/68bb4c15f1beef2669830de8/1757105173357/Mahdavi+-+Analysis+of+Californias+oil+refineries+amid+declining+demand.pdf\">analysis\u003c/a>, Mahdavi found that gasoline demand could be met by supply from in-state refineries and by imports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahdavi is on the side of a coalition of environmental justice groups that \u003ca href=\"https://mavensnotebook.com/2025/09/11/press-release-ca-environmental-groups-decry-this-year-as-the-states-worst-legislative-year-for-the-environment-and-climate-in-recent-history/\">labeled \u003c/a>the outcome “the worst legislative year for climate and environmental protection in recent memory.” The coalition said the balancing act between climate leadership and consumer prices failed to reduce\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050096/californias-clean-air-program-for-polluted-communities-faces-crossroads\"> local pollution\u003c/a> for Californians who live near hotspots such as refineries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a real responsibility to ensure that the fourth largest economy in the world, a progressive leader on climate, is really committed to not only climate policies, but ensuring that they’re deployed equitably,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"planet-money": {
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
},
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