KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK — The thick scent of smoke hung in the midday air when a trail along the Kings River opened up to an ominous scene: flames in the trees and thick gray smoke shrouding canyon walls. Firefighters were on the job. In fact, they had started the...
Farmers Don’t Need to Read the Science. We Are Living It.
[aggregation-styles] The New York Times Subscription FIREBAUGH, Calif. — Many farmers probably haven’t read the new report from the United Nations warning of threats to the global food supply from climate change and land misuse. But we don’t need to read the science — we’re living it. Here in the...
UN Climate Report: Change Land Use to Avoid a Hungry Future
GENEVA — Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the Earth's land and the way people use the land is making global warming worse, a new United Nations scientific report says. That creates a vicious cycle which is already making food more expensive, scarcer and less nutritious. "The cycle is accelerating," said NASA...
Worried About Wildfires, Californians Ready for Action on Climate Change
A majority of Californians believe global warming is happening now and that it’s a serious threat to the Golden State’s future, according to the results of a recent poll. What’s more, Californians are ready to cast their votes and spend their money to fight it. The findings from the Public Policy Institute...
How Latinos Can Help in Fight Against Climate Change
In California, climate change is a personal issue. We seem to be experiencing its earliest effects much more dramatically than the rest of the country. But Latinos are truly on the front lines. Construction, farming, manufacturing all draw heavily on Latino workers, and they are at greater risk when they...
Sailing to America: Teen to Bring Her Climate Activism to US
STOCKHOLM — Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose social media-savvy brand of eco-activism has inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes and protest for faster action against climate change, said Monday she plans to take her message to America the old-fashioned way: by boat. The 16-year-old...
California’s Pollution Enforcers Want to Save Tropical Forests. But at What Cost?
California’s climate change enforcers are grappling with the thorniest of controversies: how to prevent the planet’s tropical forests from disappearing. The question they aren’t ready to answer — at least not yet — is what focusing on far-away forests could mean for pollution at home. Lawmakers made clear in a...
Leonardo DiCaprio Helps Create New Environmental Alliance
NEW YORK — Leonardo DiCaprio is joining with billionaire investors and philanthropists Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth to create a new nonprofit environmental powerhouse charged with tackling climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The new organization, Earth Alliance, "will work globally to protect ecosystems and wildlife, ensure climate...
Governor and Legislature: Stop Raiding California’s Cap-and-Trade Funding
When I was California Assembly Speaker in 2006, I proudly negotiated with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to lay down a marker in the fight against climate change by placing strict reductions on greenhouse gas emissions through Assembly Bill 32. We knew we had to do something, especially after the U.S....
Health Impact From Smoke Rises With More Intense Wildfires
BILLINGS, Mont. — Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will sweep across the continent to affect tens of millions of people and cause a spike in premature deaths. That emerging reality is prompting people in cities...