Social Sciences
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How can nature protect us from the effects of climate change
UC Santa Cruz economics professor Galina Hale hosts Center for Coastal Climate Resilience Director Mike Beck on the radio show “Cutting Edge,” to discuss their new study on nature-based solutions for climate adaptation.
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Did wolves save Yellowstone’s aspen trees?
“Elk have declined a lot since wolves were reintroduced, but it’s not clear that that’s due to wolves,” said Chris Wilmers, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of another recent study that assessed the impacts of large carnivore recovery across North America.
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Ask Lookout: Why has Santa Cruz’s water demand dropped?
The decline stems from both cultural shifts and better fixtures in homes – things like low-flow toilets and high-efficiency washing machines – said Brent Haddad, director of the Center for Integrated Water Research at UC Santa Cruz.
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Farmworkers Brave Deadly Heat, Pollution, and ICE Raids
It can be hard to trace the poor health of farmworkers to any one cause. Ecosyndemics is the term that Matt Sparke, a professor of geography and globalization at the University of California, Santa Cruz, uses to describe the compounding health impacts from environmental pollution.
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Scientists push for greater climate role for Latin America’s overlooked ecosystems
Lead author Scott Winton, an ecologist from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the U.S., carried out three years of extensive fieldwork to produce the first data-driven map of recently documented and predicted peatlands in Colombia’s Orinoquía and Amazonian regions.
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World Cup draw in Washington is one more play in Trump and FIFA’s long game of politics
Jacqueline Gehring, an expert in the politics of sports at the University of California Santa Cruz, pointed out that FIFA has long drawn criticism for getting friendly with contentious regimes.
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Kids are missing out on one of their best chances at learning
During play, kids learn “how to collaborate, how to communicate, how to resolve conflict,” said Rebecca London, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has worked on recess research.
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India’s Goldilocks economy
India can’t be complacent, writes Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Signh. An 8% growth rate maintained over the next two decades will be transformative, but policies still need to be enacted or modified.
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Death Row Prisoners Granted Clemency by Biden Brace for “Living Hell” Under Trump
Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has visited ADX and conducted research on solitary confinement for decades, wrote in a declaration as part of the prisoners’ lawsuit, “mentally ill people are more likely to deteriorate and decompensate when they are subjected to the harshness and stress of prison…
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Reintroduced Carnivores’ Impacts on Ecosystems Are Still Coming Into Focus
“It’s not that there’s not evidence consistent with a trophic cascade in Yellowstone,” said Chris Wilmers, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of California Santa Cruz, and the paper’s lead author. “It’s that the effects are a lot more complicated and weaker than what was initially thought.”
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Don’t rush the trails: Conservation must come before recreation
An opinion column in Lookout Santa Cruz cited research by Professor Chris Wilmers on the impacts that the mere presence of people can have on mountain lions.
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New directory helps donors navigate the complex world of global reforestation
Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz evaluated groups across four categories: permanence, ecological, social and financial, each backed by scientific literature on best practices. Karen Holl, a professor at UC Santa Cruz and reforestation expert, told Mongabay. “There was really no standardized way to answer that question.” So how can a tree investor…