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Climate Change

Featuring research and hands-on efforts around climate change

coal plants with smoke
Photo Credit
iStock

How to retire coal, smarter and faster

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Ruins of an ancient temple beneath a blue sky and clouds
Photo Credit
iStock / Leonid Andronov
Tikal, in Guatemala, is among the major sites of the Classic Mayan civilization.

Why Classic Maya cities rose and fell
A forest sits atop an eroding bluff.
Photo Credit
Maksim Safaniuk via iStock
Anna Trugman researches how plants respond to climate change, while Gen Li studies erosion and weathering — the natural processes that break down rocks and transport sediment.

Two UCSB professors recognized for contributions to the Earth sciences
A hotshot in an orange hardhat, yellow Nomex jacket and sunglasses glances to the right backlit by an inferno engulfing the pines a few dozen yards behind him, with the book cover to the right.
Photo Credit
Jordan Thomas/ Penguin Publishing Group
Centuries of misguided policy, politics and prejudice have primed the land for the unprecedented infernos that wildland firefighters now face every year.

Hotshots, history and the human choices behind megafires
Three tropical cyclones in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Photo Credit
NASA
The El Niño Southern Oscillation drives major weather patterns across the globe. Disrupting it could have intense and far-reaching ramifications.

A hard look at geoengineering reveals global risks
a bloom of green algae off the coast
Eutrophication — caused by excessive nutrients, such as fertilizer runoff — causes a bloom of algae that depletes the water of oxygen and causes 'dead zones' that kill fish and other marine organisms

Human impact on the ocean will double by 2050, UCSB scientists warn
Fall colors fade into the distance in the rolling terrain of the Ozark Mountains.
Photo Credit
Benjamin Klinger via iStock

For nature-based climate solutions to work, they must be restructured
The sun glistens through water droplets on blades of grass.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko

Grasses are spendthrifts, forests are budgeters, in a nuanced account of plant water use
drone footage of river with water based plastic trash collectors
Photo Credit
Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory
A depiction of various river plastic collection technologies utilized for data collection

How plastic pollution flows from rivers to oceans — and how to stop it
Old, abandoned barn in a large field with white wildflowers and prairie grass.
Photo Credit
Richard McMillin via iStock
While global trends dominate environmental outcomes, decisions about recultivating or rewilding abandoned fields can influence habitat health.

Protecting nature may depend on where — not just how — we farm
Five Black men in different uniforms and non uniformed dress are in a group talking
Photo Credit
UN Photos
UN peacekeepers and members of the Malian military discuss outbreaks of violence with village residents in Mopti, Mali.

Trust in peacekeepers linked to reduced violence
Dead corn and cracked earth under an orange sky.
Photo Credit
piyaset via iStock
Warmer air can suck more moisture in dry regions and dump more rain in wet regions. New research reveals that the atmosphere’s drying capacity is outpacing increases to rainfall.

The atmosphere’s growing thirst is making droughts worse, even where it rains
cargo ships queueing at Los Angeles and Long Beach port during COVID pandemic
Cargo vessel congestion at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex during the COVID pandemic

A cheap and easy potential solution for lowering carbon emissions in maritime shipping
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