Media Coverage
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Landslides are destroying multimillion-dollar homes in California, and they’re getting worse
Rancho Palos Verdes sits on top of a volcanic ash bed, laid down about 10 to 15 million years ago, that slopes down to the Pacific shoreline. “It has weathered to a type of clay mineral that can expand and get slippery when it gets wet,” said Gary Griggs, distinguished professor of earth and planetary…
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As ‘doomsday’ glacier melts, can an artificial barrier save it?
There are other glacier-protecting strategies that avoid the need for curtains or other barriers. Slawek Tulaczyk, a glaciologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has proposed stabilizing the two imperiled glaciers by draining the meltwaters that currently seep to their base, lubricating the pinning points and accelerating the glaciers’ seaward flow. By drilling holes…
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What would the world look like without mosquitoes?
Winifred Frick, a bat biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says most bats are actually generalist predators, meaning they eat whatever they can catch—mosquito, beetle, or otherwise.
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Famed Polynesian island did not succumb to ‘ecological suicide,’ new evidence reveals
Anthropology Professor Lars Fehren-Schmitz, an anthropological geneticist, commented on a new first-of-its-kind study of the genomes of ancient Rapanui, which demonstrates that Rapa Nui, or "Easter Island," did not experience a population crash caused by overexploitation of natural resources. The new results “deliver solid data that the ‘ecocide’ hypothesis is not supported,” said Fehren-Schmitz.
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Kamala Harris Embraced Reparations 5 Years Ago. Her SF Pastor Says Criticism Is Unjust
Nolan Higdon, a lecturer of history and media studies at UC Santa Cruz, said the strategy of cherry-picking quotes to spread hate is antithetical to democracy. He added that Republicans over the last 50 years have used race-baiting to scare white people into voting for their candidates. “To amplify fear, division and hate, that’s something…
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Fire-Weary Lake County Again Faces a Tough Recovery and Questions Over Rebuilding
UC Santa Cruz professor Miriam Greenberg, who studies the interconnections between lack of affordable housing and climate catastrophes like fires, cautioned the city and its residents to think about whether rebuilding in Clearlake is a good idea. “It’s a question that should be asked sensitively because a fire may have already displaced them from an…
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Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation at 60: A look back and forward
Colombian ecologist Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, an assistant professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the impact of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. “When you bring conservation in—because conservation is a crisis discipline that deals with imperfect and incomplete data sets—there’s a tension,” she said. “But I’ve seen that tension dissolve at ATBC over…
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Hate crimes rise against Indian Americans in California, deepening a divide between Hindus and Sikhs
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh, co-author of The Other One Percent: Indians in America, spoke with CalMatters about how issues from India are spilling over into hate crimes against Indian Americans. “The citizens themselves are in some sense all victims of this phenomenon, whether Sikh, Muslim or Hindu or any other religious tradition," he said.…
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Banks seem to be falling totally flat on climate commitments
Quartz covered a new working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research by Economics Professor Galina Hale and her collaborators, which found that, while "all banks have reduced their loan-emission exposures over the last 8 years" banks that made public sustainability commitments didn't perform any better in these efforts than those that didn't.
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Fake meat's false promise
Fast Company published an excerpt from Professor Julie Guthman's new book The Problem with Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can’t Hack the Future of Food. The article takes a critical look at efforts to develop alternative protein sources.
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The politics of pensions and savings
Distinguished Professor of Economics Nirvikar Singh wrote an opinion article for Financial Express recommending that government policy in India should take a comprehensive look at the institutional landscape for pensions and savings.
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Santa Cruz Symphony launches new season feeling the momentum of last season’s successes
Former astrophysics professor Martin Gaskell spends his free time writing and playing music. One of his works has been selected as part of the opening concert for the Santa Cruz Symphony.