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Bren School of Environmental Science & Management

A truck unloads waste on a landfill as a landfill compactor moves material nearby.
Photo Credit
Djedzura via iStock
Despite the known problems with plastic, society produces more of it every year. Scientists hope that mandatory measurement and reporting can help us address the issue.

Want a solution to plastic pollution? Scientists urge UN to require global reporting

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Satellite imagery shows the difference between current and average sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean as a literal heatmap.
Photo Credit
NOAA Satellites
Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean were already far higher than average by the first week of June 2026 due to El Niño.

El Niño has become more intense over last 40 years than the previous 1,000 years
Two Mapuche women smiling and wearing colorful, traditional attire with silver necklaces.
Photo Credit
Oscar Gutierrez Zozulia via iStock
The Mapuche are Chile’s largest Indigenous group, having retained independence form the Spanish empire for centuries.

Indigenous land restitution empowers communities, but environmental gains require extra support
a charging cable into an electric vehicle at sunset.
Photo Credit
Michael Fousert, Unsplash
Accounting for the emissions over a vehicle’s entire lifecycle overturns the sunk-cost thinking that keeps gasoline vehicles on the roads.

Thinking about trading your car in for an EV? There’s a compelling new reason to do it now
A shark fin sticks out of the ice at a fish market.
Photo Credit
enginakyurt11 via iStock
Small and easily stored, shark fins can be far more valuable than the rest of the animal’s carcass.

Combining fishing regulations and trade data reveals the complex global market for shark products
Christopher Costello
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Christopher Costello

Christopher Costello recognized for his pioneering work in environmental markets
An oil palm plantation at edge of rainforest with a boarder of trees that were logged to clear land for agricultural expansion.
Photo Credit
Richcarey via iStock
Crafting strategies to stop deforestation will require understanding the factors that accelerate and arrest it.

Declines in deforestation aren’t driven by corporate sustainability pledges
A group of elephants prepare to cross a road as oncoming headlights can be seen in the distance.
Photo Credit
Davide Antoniani via iStock
Elephants and humans could be headed for a collision in Southern Africa as climate change bears down and more land comes under cultivation.

Human expansion will fuel more conflict with elephants without careful planning
Headshot of Elena Irwin
Photo Credit
Courtesy
Elena Irwin

UCSB names new dean of its prestigious Bren School
A closeup of the back of a graduation cap decorated with a pale blue flower and the letters UCSB

Commencement 2026 celebrates accomplishment, purpose and community
The graduates of 2026 in the courtyard below the trees, low angle
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Bren's class of 2026 face the future with new skills, expertise and determination.

The Bren School’s new graduates are ready to face the challenges of the times
A mosquito feeds on a person's skin.
Photo Credit
panom via iStock
California's warming climate is making the state more hospitable to dengue virus, and to the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry it.

As California warms, cases of dengue fever are expected to grow
A deer looks a pair of hikers walking down a snow-covered trail.
Photo Credit
Gary Bendig via Unsplash
Our presence affects animals beyond merely how we’ve modified the landscape.

Data on human and wildlife movement during the pandemic suggest new ways for us to coexist
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