Santa Clara County Environment Digest

As energy costs go up and awareness of the environmental footprint increases, people are turning to energy consultants for energy audits and advice.

Sieroty, of Beverly Hills, served as a state Assembly member and senator, championing disability rights and efforts to protect California's coast.

California will miss its goals unless it can increase emission reductions threefold, according to a new study.

An interview with the CEO of the popular outdoor app serving more than 60 million users worldwide.

The City Council unanimously agreed to stop enforcing its ban on gas infrastructure to comply with a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Board of Appeals which struck down a similar prohibition on gas infrastructure in Berkeley in 2023.

Ecologists estimate that up to 14,000 sequoias have been killed in recent wildfires. The National Park Service for the first time has begun replanting some severely burned areas.

The state’s environmental tool skews which communities are designated as disadvantaged, researchers say. Some immigrant neighborhoods could be left out, while other groups are overrepresented.

A temporary lake in Death Valley National Park doubled after recent rains and is now deep enough to launch a kayak. Prior to August, ghostly Lake Manly hadn’t appeared in 19 years.

Foragers at the beaches in Half Moon Bay might be damaging the area’s reef.

A handful of super powerful tropical storms in the last decade and the prospect of more to come has a couple of experts proposing a new category of whopper hurricanes: Category 6.

The storm fed off of unusually warm waters as it grew. It also reached “bomb cyclone” status as it neared California.

Monarch butterflies have a long way to go before reaching stable population numbers.

As an underground fire burns deep within Chiquita Canyon Landfill, air regulators are raising alarms over the possible spread of toxic vapors.

What is an ARkStorm and why is everyone talking about it on social media right now?

Take a period of limited rainfall. Add heat. And you have what scientists call a “hot drought”—dry conditions made more intense by the evaporative power of hotter temperatures.

Just weeks after a deal fell through to buy the Richmond Ranch for development, county leaders are moving forward with turning the open space into a massive park.

A major housing project proposed in the East Whisman neighborhood received praise for adding more green space and affordable units, but not with some misgivings about the loss of trees and where those affordable units would go.

When Palo Alto passed an ambitious tree-protection law in 2022, it aimed to shield the city's treasured canopy from destruction. But as the council pared back the law, some called for more radical measures.

A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider its controversial April 2023 decision that mutes Los Altos’ and other cities’ attempts to require natural gas bans in new construction.

The Bay Area’s fog is iconic. But the latest episode of KQED podcast “Bay Curious” looks at how climate change could reduce the number of foggy days in the area.

Munition boxes, depth charges and smoke floats have been found 3,000 feet underwater off the coast of Los Angeles. More than 100 square miles of ocean might be contaminated.

Heavy snow is projected in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Previously, warmer storms had been bringing precipitation mainly to higher elevations in the Sierras.

Research shows that a mountain chickadee facing deep snow is like a canary in a coal mine—its survivability tells us about the challenges ahead.

Los Altos City Council members may again be taking up discussion on updating a tree protection ordinance intended to encourage healthy tree populations under the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

Bright blue waves have been spotted in Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. The bioluminescence is caused by organisms known as dinoflagellates and can impact fish populations.

California's statewide snowpack is 25% of average as of Jan. 2. State reservoirs are still above average for this time of year due to a wet season, and strong El Nino conditions are present in the Pacific Ocean and are expected to bring more snow.

The California Department of Water Resources has found that the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains is at just 25% of normal levels for this time of year. This could potentially impact water supply and wildfire protection.

A dark-sky movement to save birds from window strikes is sweeping the San Francisco Bay Area. Several cities have passed or are drafting laws restricting light pollution while making windows easier for birds to see.

Sarah Grimes investigates reports of dead marine mammals up and down the coast. So when she began finding the decapitated bodies of harbor seal pups just a few miles north of Fort Bragg in 2016, she was on the case. Grimes wasn’t able to pin down the culprit until last year, with the help of a UCSC student.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe announced it is acquiring about 10,000 acres of land in Northern California for $14.1 million. As part of this, the tribe will remove dams along the Klamath River and restore salmon runs.

The California Department of Water Resources has approved building a tunnel between the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The approval could signal a new wave of legal challenges to the long-running and controversial project.

Farmland is being rezoned for industrial use, and massive warehouses are being built on spec near communities like Buttonwillow and Shafter, so goods coming through the Southern California ports can be shipped quickly throughout the western United States.