Statewide Region Local News: Sustainability

08/01/2023
California’s leading air regulator acknowledged major roadblocks to meeting its ambitious carbon emissions target for 2030. The hurdles revolve around the feasibility of carbon capture technologies and the state’s flagship climate program, known as cap-and-trade.

07/27/2023
As sea levels rise, many countries are considering a controversial strategy: relocation of communities. A Stanford analysis of planned relocations around the world reveals a blueprint for positive outcomes from an approach often considered a last resort.

07/27/2023
The total number of climate change court cases has more than doubled since 2017 and is growing worldwide. These findings, published by the UN Environment Programme and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, show that climate litigation is becoming an integral part of securing climate action and justice.

07/17/2023
Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

07/12/2023
In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.

06/28/2023
California lawmakers passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, permanently protecting the iconic and imperiled species.

06/26/2023
The Salt & Straw ice cream chain is part of the upcycling movement, creating high-quality products from leftover food with flavors like Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato, made from leftover cacao pulp from chocolate production.

05/19/2023
California legislative committees in the Assembly and Senate blocked two big climate bills. One would have made the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more ambitious. Another would have allowed people to sue oil companies over health problems if they meet certain criteria.

05/19/2023
The U.S. government has approved a proposed multibillion-dollar transmission line that would send wind-generated electricity from rural New Mexico to big cities in the West.

05/03/2023
Fort Bragg is embarking on an innovative pilot project to desalt ocean water for the Mendocino Coast community using carbon-free wave action to power an energy-intensive process that in other cases generates climate changing greenhouse gases.

05/02/2023
As the industry invests $40 billion in new US electric car plants, the rapid transformation raises labor and supply chain issues. Automaker Ford says, “we’re all in.”

04/25/2023
Trucking companies say the deadlines for converting big rigs, delivery trucks and other heavy vehicles are unachievable and will cause “chaos and dysfunction.” The move is designed to clean communities' air, especially near ports, warehouses and freeways.

04/23/2023
And neither was 1952. The top honor should really go to 1983, which clinched first at 231% of normal, an analysis by the Bay Area News Group found.

04/17/2023
From brainy write-ups to passionate pleas for reform, here are selected excerpts from CalMatters' Earth Day op-ed contest.

04/11/2023
Up to 60% of 2030 models and two-thirds of 2032 models sold nationwide would be zero-emissions—less aggressive than California’s mandate.

04/11/2023
One of the options would override California’s water rights and split the cuts evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona—which would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers.