PORT ARTHUR, Texas — As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out: an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60-mile "spine" of concrete seawalls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast....
Battling 18 Blazes, California May Face Worst Fire Season
The largest wildfire ever recorded in California needed just 11 days to blacken an area nearly the size of Los Angeles — and it's only one of many enormous blazes that could make this the worst fire season in state history. Some 14,000 firefighters from as far away as Florida...
A Perfect Storm Makes Wildfires Bigger, More Costly To Control
Hopes for fewer large wildfires in 2018, after last year’s disastrous fire season, are rapidly disappearing across the West. Six deaths have been reported in Northern California’s Carr Fire, including two firefighters. Fires have scorched Yosemite, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Sequoia and Grand Canyon national parks. A blaze in June forced...
EPA Needs Fixing. But Scott Pruitt’s Way Is All Wrong.
In 2017, just a few days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, a freshman GOP lawmaker with only a few days on the job of his own, proposed House Resolution 861. Its language was ominous: “The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018.” I was in...
Come 2050, Californians Will Wish They Had More Dams
A new University of California report forecasts kick-to-the-gut climate-change realities for California farmers, especially those who grow permanent crops in the Central Valley. In a nutshell, the report anticipates big trouble ahead for crops such as almonds, peaches, table grapes, corn and rice. Scorching summer heat and longer periods of...
California Cities Work Both Sides of the Street on Climate Change: Walters
Officials in five cities and three counties have filed lawsuits alleging that companies knowingly emitted greenhouse gases that will damage those communities as oceans rise, and should pay for it, Dan Walters writes in his Feb. 12 CALmatters column. So, what's the rub? Explains Walters: "It’s easy to file a...
California Cities Work Both Sides of the Street on Climate Change: Walters
Officials in five cities and three counties have filed lawsuits alleging that companies knowingly emitted greenhouse gases that will damage those communities as oceans rise, and should pay for it, Dan Walters writes in his Feb. 12 CALmatters column. So, what's the rub? Explains Walters: "It’s easy to file a...
Will the Weather Get Worse in 2018? What the Experts Say
Last year unleashed some catastrophic weather across the world. At the beginning of 2017, Australia experienced one of the hottest summers on record in Sydney and Brisbane, followed by a killer summer heatwave across southern Europe and wildfires triggered by heat in California. The Atlantic hurricane season was particularly active,...
Will the Weather Get Worse in 2018? What the Experts Say
Last year unleashed some catastrophic weather across the world. At the beginning of 2017, Australia experienced one of the hottest summers on record in Sydney and Brisbane, followed by a killer summer heatwave across southern Europe and wildfires triggered by heat in California. The Atlantic hurricane season was particularly active,...
Wildfires in West Have Gotten Bigger, More Frequent and Longer Since the 1980s
Dramatic images of out-of-control wildfires in western North American forests have appeared on our television and computer screens with increasing regularity in recent decades, while costs of fire suppression have soared. In 2015, federal spending on suppression exceeded US$2 billion, just 15 years after first exceeding $1 billion. Something has...