Media Coverage

Local newspapers, television and radio stations are the most trusted media in the county, with 85% of Americans saying the local press is essential for democracy. It’s because these reporters are from the same communities they’re writing about, said Erika Hayden, director of the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, enabling…

“We can’t build seawalls high enough to protect us forever,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “So, in the long run, it’s either going to be managed retreat or unmanaged retreat. It’s up to each community to decide.” Also interviewed by KPIX and KCBS.

“The otters are a just super voracious predator,” says study co-author Kerstin Wasson, an ecologist at the reserve and the University of California, Santa Cruz. “We calculated that the current otter population here eats somewhere between 50,000 and 120,000 green crabs a year.” Additional coverage in the Washington Post, USA Today, and other outlets.

Michael W. Beck, the director of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that big wave events have increased significantly over the past few decades. Daily exposure to stronger waves — which strike multiple times a minute — also causes wear that California’s sea structures weren’t designed to…

"We think that the Moon went through a period when it looked like Io, and for the same reason," says Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist with the University of California, Santa Cruz, and lead author of the paper. "There would have been volcanoes jetting off all over the place," he says. "It would have been very…

“It’s kind of a selfish way to look at these ecosystems. We need to maintain them because they’re protecting people,” said Borja G. Reguero, a coastal engineer and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz who’s co-authored much of the relevant science. Such logic is compelling to the emergency authorities and insurance companies that…

President-elect Trump has threatened to rescind all unspent IRA money, and the Treasury Department could reopen and rewrite the tax credit rules. Without federal funds and leadership, unionization rates in the wind industry will likely continue to vary across states. Going forward, Mijin Cha, who studies just transition at the University of California, Santa Cruz,…

Miners describe eroding benefits as unionized coal mines have closed down. Some former union mines may eventually reopen, but it will be with new names, new owners and no union contracts. Mijin Cha, a just transition researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said that this is a common trend across the nation.