Social Sciences
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Why thousands of people are traveling to one country to see these birds
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela is a conservation ecologist who has been studying the explosion of bird-watching tourism in Colombia. Activity on eBird, a platform where birders can record their observations, increased more than 27-fold in Colombia since 2010, according to unpublished research by Ocampo-Peñuela and other authors that’s currently under review.
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Enter the ‘ether,’ where scammers weaponize your emotions
Anthony Pratkanis, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, co-wrote a source book for fraud fighters. “We’re looking at it from the outside, and we may not see all the little details and trappings that create that powerful situation for the targeted victim,” he said.
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Revealed: how a San Francisco navy lab became a hub for human radiation experiments
The navy’s San Francisco lab was one of many research centers and hospitals across the country that exposed people to radiation and other hazards for scientific purposes. That makes it a demonstration of “the ways that people have been seen as disposable, to science or to the military”, said Lindsey Dillon, a UCSC assistant professor…
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Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds
Karen Holl, professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the research, noted that it’s critical to include local communities in regeneration efforts. Holl’s own research in Costa Rica has shown that people often see natural forest regeneration as “messy,” and they tend to place more value…
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California's rainy season begins with a bomb cyclone bang. Are we in for a third record wet winter?
“This is welcome to a certain extent, it moves us away from fire risk by wetting down ecosystems,” said Michael Loik, a professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz. “On the other hand,” he added, “it can be too much of a good thing too quickly.”
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India and the US elections
Nirvikar Singh, distinguished professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz, argues in this op-ed that the importance of the recent U.S. elections for India cannot be overstated. The political landscape in the U.S. has shifted dramatically.
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UC Santa Cruz awarded $4 million grant to address systemic racism, ableism in K-12 math
The National Science Foundation awarded more than $4 million in grant funding to UC Santa Cruz to support a project aimed at addressing systemic racism and ableism in K-12 math education. “I really want teachers in mathematics education to have better ideas, resources and pedagogies to teach all of their students,” said assistant professor of…
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Washington state farm workers worry about boom in legal foreign workers
Rosa Navarro, a sociology doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, researches the guest worker program’s expansion in Washington state. Farm workers have told her that some farms replaced their entire workforce with guest workers, and advocates say that the H-2A program is making inroads with agricultural sites that haven’t used its workers before.
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Environmental Justice? Not if Project 2025 Has a Say.
Mijin Cha, a professor of environmental studies at University of California, Santa Cruz, says Inflation Reduction Act grant programs could be improved by providing benefits more directly to underserved people. “The federal government gives money to a third party, and then that third party distributes the money,” says Cha. “Is it not more efficient to…
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Growth, jobs and manufacturing
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh argues that increases in productivity and wages that come from investment in human capital are going to benefit a larger slice of the population than investment in physical capital that substitutes for workers, though both kinds of investment matter.
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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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Uber and Lyft’s Appeal in California Labor Case Won’t Be Heard by Supreme Court
The Supreme Court's decision to kick a case on pay and benefits for gig workers back to state courts means there’s a continuing lack of clarity, according to UC Santa Cruz Sociology Professor Steve McKay, who directs the university’s Center for Labor and Community. “When we have a system where employers pay for a lot…