Environmental Studies
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Largest dam removal ever, driven by Tribes, kicks off Klamath River recovery
Environmental studies Ph.D. student, artist, and Yurok Tribe restoration engineer Brooke Thompson celebrated dam removal on the Klamath River. “This has been 20-plus years in the making, my entire life, and why I went to university, why I’m doing the degrees I’m doing now,” she said. “I feel amazing. I feel like the weight of…
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Across reforestation organizations, best practices claims abound, but details are scarce
Mongabay covered prior research by Environmental Studies Professor Karen Holl on the practices of tree-planting organizations and shared news about a new phase of the research, starting this month, in which the team plans to investigate links between reported practices and reforestation outcomes.
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To slow global warming, could methane be stripped from the air
Science interviewed Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah about a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that recommends a two-phase approach for studying the need and potential for methane removal technology in the United States. Jinnah was a member of a special committee formed by the organization to help develop a research agenda…
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Opinion: Imperial County residents deserve to benefit from a potential lithium boom
Environmental Studies and Sociology Professor Chris Benner, who is the faculty director for the Institute for Social Transformation, co-wrote an opinion article about the need for local communities to benefit from lithium extraction in the Salton Sea region. More detailed coverage is available in The Conversation.
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Silicon Valley Renegades Pollute the Sky to Save the Planet
Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah explained the harms of unregulated and uninformed solar geoengineering efforts, like the group Make Sunsets. “They are a couple of tech bros who have no expertise in doing what they’re claiming to do,” she said. “They’re not scientists and they’re making claims about cooling credits that nobody has validated.”
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Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation at 60: A look back and forward
Colombian ecologist Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, an assistant professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the impact of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. “When you bring conservation in—because conservation is a crisis discipline that deals with imperfect and incomplete data sets—there’s a tension,” she said. “But I’ve seen that tension dissolve at ATBC over…
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With Dams Removed, Salmon Will Have the Run of a Western River
Environmental Studies Ph.D. student Brook Thompson, who grew up on the Yurok reservation, explained the importance of restoring salmon in the Klamath River to historical levels. “My grandpa said that there were so many salmon when he was younger that you could walk across their backs to the other side,” Thompson said. “It’s just so hard to…
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Will regulators OK controversial effort to supercharge ocean’s ability to absorb carbon?
Given the controversy surrounding geoengineering experiments, it’s important for scientists to do public outreach before experiments happen, Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah told Science. Although scientists might be inclined to stay in the lab and focus on the technical questions, they need to engage with the public, she says. “Until scientists take this seriously, we’re…
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A controversial experiment to artificially cool Earth was canceled — what we know about why
Environmental Studies Professor Sikina Jinnah, who co-chaired the advisory committee for Harvard University's SCoPEX solar geoengineering experiment, talked to The Verge about some of the lessons learned from that process. “One of the core messages that comes out of this is that public engagement is necessary even when you don’t think that the impact of the…
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Could AI robots with lasers make herbicides — and farm workers — obsolete?
Chris Benner, professor of sociology and environmental studies and director of the Institute for Social Transformation, likened the disruptive potential of new agricultural tools. “We need more efficiencies in agriculture to improve profit margins and be able to pay workers in the field more, but that’s ultimately going to displace some people,” Benner said. “What do…
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Chicago teachers demand climate solutions in their next contract
As heat and extreme weather become more prevalent because of the climate crisis, J. Mijin Cha, an environmental studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said it makes sense that climate demands are turning up in union negotiations. “If you want a green school, you have to really think about what the challenges of…
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Extra moisture on West Coast allowing climate-sensitive Joshua trees to recover: Experts
The obligate mutualism between the moth and the Joshua tree is limited to a narrow belt where the trees grow best, as neither can survive at high elevations, but the tree cannot reproduce in low elevations either, according to research led by UC Santa Cruz professor of environmental studies Gregory Gilbert.