Center for Forestry at UC Berkeley

Fighting global warming is starting to sound like a lucrative investment. A new study out of Stanford University finds that keeping global warming a half-degree beneath the Paris climate agreement's 2 degree Celsius target could potentially save more than $20 trillion globally. http://www.latimes.com//la-sci-sn-global-warming-costs-201

Annual emissions numbers come from California’s GHG inventory which clearly shows a decline in emissions since a peak in 2004. This is encouraging! But the inventory emphasizes GHG emissions produced within California. There are millions of tons of GHG emissions baked into imported goods we consume that don’t show up in these numbers. If we’re truly concerned about our contribution to global GHG emissions, this home-based carbon accounting is kind of like measuring GHG weight... loss with one foot off the scale. This recently published study suggests that current accounting practices could significantly underestimate California’s global carbon footprint. These findings have caught the attention of some California lawmakers who want to know: How different would our GHG emissions look if we tracked the emissions we consume (versus produce)? https://energyathaas.wordpress.com//are-californias-globa/

New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals for the first time that nearly half of mountain ranges fall short of current conservation targets across all elevations. The planet contains roughly 1,000 mountain ranges that are home to high levels of biodiversity, yet conservation efforts are failing to adequately protect these biodiverse areas for plants and animals, which are being pushed upslope as the climate warms. https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu//unprotected-mountains

The trade conflict between the U.S. and China is heating up, and while tariffs on the steel and agriculture industries have taken center stage, the conflict has quietly moved into another less visible sector: It’s greatly disrupted the recycling industry. These new policies are already affecting businesses, but over time they could impact residents and city governments and even undermine state environmental policy. Joseph Kalpakoff, president of Mid Valley Disposal, says, It...'s a challenge for not only us, but the entire industry. The U.S. prides itself that it recycles about a third of its solid waste. California set an ambitious goal to recycle 75 percent of its waste by 2020. But the U.S. can’t process all that material, so we ship a huge amount overseas. The biggest importer is China, which takes about a third of our scrap materials. http://kvpr.org//fears-grow-among-valley-recyclers-china-d

LOS ANGELES California last week became the first U.S. state to require solar installations on most new homes by the year 2020. The mandate on single-family houses and multifamily units of up to three stories is part of an effort by the state to cut carbon emissions. The mandate comes as Washington adopts less ambitious environmental goals to reduce what President Donald Trump calls job-killing regulations.... https://www.voanews.com/a/solar-power-in-calif/4394317.html

In late March, McDonald’s issued a bold press release announcing major cuts to its greenhouse gas emissionsa plan that will require the company to rethink not only how it lights and fuels its restaurants, but also how it sources its beef, which the company says amounts to 29 percent of its carbon footprint. https://newfoodeconomy.org/mcdonalds-greenhouse-gas-emissi/

Bigger, more intense forest fires, longer droughts, warmer ocean temperatures and an ever shrinking snowpack in the Sierra Nevada are unequivocal evidence of the ruinous domino-effects that climate change is having on California, a new California Environmental Protection Agency report states. The 350-page report released Wednesday tracks 36 indicators of climate change, including a comprehensive list of human impacts and the effects on wildlife, the ocean, lakes, rivers and the mountains. https://www.sfchronicle.com//Climate-change-ruining-Califo

Since 2012, every year 100 million people have gained access to electricity, most for the first time. With the cheapest energy in 60 countries coming from solar panels, and wind energy hitting record low prices, there is little question that clean energy will continue to play an increasing role in the life of a new generation. While the vast majority of individuals still living without power are in countries with less developed electricity grids, the problem of clean energy access persists in more historically developed contexts. https://impakter.com/clean-energy-access-universal-challen/

Public water quality has received a lot of attention in recent years as some disturbing discoveries have been made regarding lead levels in cities across the country. Now, a new study from the Johns Hopkins University pinpoints other chemicals in water that are worth paying attention toand in fact, some of them may be created, ironically, during the water treatment process itself. https://hub.jhu.edu//water-treatment-generates-harmful-ch/

UC Berkeley celebrated personal and campus wide sustainability accomplishments on Wednesday during its 15th Annual Sustainability Summit with Chancellor Carol Christ. It is becoming clear as we undertake this process that one of the grand challenges on which Berkeley can provide strategic global leadership is in the area of environmental change, sustainability, and justice, Christ said. Because of the breadth and depth of expertise here, Berkeley has the unique opportunity to bring a truly interdisciplinary approach to solving global issues of climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, food production, land use, and more. http://news.berkeley.edu//berkeley-celebrates-sustainabil/

The University of California believes it can go carbon neutral by 2025. That means zero carbon emissions from powering its buildings and vehicles on all ten campuses. But according to a recent report and related commentary by experts from across the system in the journal Nature, it could be a tough goal to reach. That’s a position shared by Berkeley professor and energy expert Dan Kammen, who was not affiliated with the report. We’re not actually on pace for our 2025 goal, he saidmore like 2035 or 2040. We need to accelerate. That’s one of the key things, I think. https://alumni.berkeley.edu//new-report-how-uc-can-meet-it

Lyft, the ridesharing technology company, announced Thursday that it’s balancing out the carbon emissions from its fleet by purchasing carbon offsets. Basically, this means the firm will plow some of its revenue into funding projects that reduce greenhouse gases think: planting trees or investing in wind energy projects in order to cancel out the emissions from the more-than-a-million rides its app facilitates each day. https://grist.org//lyft-pledges-to-cancel-out-the-carbon-/