News – Page 19

Study: Fixing Climate Change Will Take New Energy Tools

Written on January 8, 2013.

The task is more difficult now than just a few years ago, a new study says, citing the recent surge in global greenhouse-gas emissions. Its co-author proposes eliminating emissions altogether by 2060. Wendy Koch, USA TODAY What will it take to fix climate change? The world will need new technologies that produce energy without emitting greenhouse gases, scientists argue in a study to be published Wednesday. The research looks at a popular 2004 approach put forward by two Princeton scientists...

Major Cuts to Surging CO2 Emissions Are Needed Now, Not Down the Road, Study Finds

Written on January 7, 2013.

Janet Wilson, UC Irvine News Halting climate change will require “a fundamental and disruptive overhaul of the global energy system” to eradicate harmful carbon dioxide emissions, not just stabilize them, according to new findings by UC Irvine and other scientists. In a Jan. 9 paper in Environmental Research Letters, UC Irvine Earth system scientist Steve Davis and others take a fresh look at the popular “wedge” approach to tackling climate change outlined in a 2004 study by Princeton...

Highlights of 2012 at UCI

Written on December 10, 2012.

Year brings scientific advances, national accolades, international outreach, student achievement and loss of campus stalwarts “F. Sherwood Rowland saved the world. It’s as simple as that.” Time magazine published these words after the UC Irvine founding professor and Nobel Prize-winning researcher died last March at 84. A fiercely independent voice, “Sherry” – as he was known to his many colleagues and friends – left a profound imprint on science and society. He helped drive the discussion...

Antarctic Sea Ice Hits Record … High?

Written on October 13, 2012.

Does that mean Earth isn’t warming up? Daniel Stone, National Geographic News Despite frequent headlines about a warming planet, melting sea ice, and rising oceans, climate analysts pointed to a seeming bright spot this week: During Southern Hemisphere winters, sea ice in the Antarctic, the floating chunks of frozen ocean water, is actually increasing. In fact, in late September, satellite data indicated that Antarctica was surrounded by the greatest area of sea ice ever recorded...

UCI’s Cloned Redwoods Rooted in Research

Written on October 12, 2012.

Janet Wilson, UCIrvine News UC Irvine’s redwoods sit like forlorn Christmas trees near the campus power plant and the Crawford Hall parking lot. They’re miniatures of Northern California’s ancient giants, a dwarf grove with drooping branches. But they’re still standing. The trees began life with fanfare three decades ago. They are test-tube babies – samples of the world’s first artificially cloned Sequoia sempervirens created by now-deceased UCI biologist Ernest Ball. Manufactured from...

Donald Blake garners 2013 American Chemical Society award

Written on August 28, 2012.

Tatiana Arizaga, School of Physical Sciences Communications UCI chemistry professor Donald Blake will receive the 2013 National Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science & Technology from the American Chemical Society. “This award reflects the collaborative efforts of the Rowland-Blake Group to advance the understanding of trace gases in the atmosphere,” Blake said. “I built many of the original analytical tools, and now the group has advanced those tools to...

EDITORIAL: State Needs to Protect Precious Groundwater

Written on July 27, 2012.

Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times State and federal officials have rightly been accused of tunnel vision in dealing with California’s numerous water challenges. Nearly all their recent focus has been on building new plumbing in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, largely to improve water supplies for water contractors south of the Delta. Completely missing from the debate are California’s groundwater resources, which in dry years provide nearly 40 percent of the state’s...

“Drought Is an Insidious and Patient Killer”: Water Currents’ Jay Famiglietti Testifies to Congress

Written on July 27, 2012.

Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic News This week Water Currents’ own Jay Famiglietti came to Washington from California to testify before Congress on the importance of supporting research on drought and hydrology science. Famiglietti, a professor at the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Earth System Science and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is perhaps best known for his satellite-based research on over-pumping of aquifers. Famiglietti...

Sudden Ice Melt Seen on 97% of Greenland

Written on July 25, 2012.

Pat Brennan, The Orange County Register Nearly the entire Greenland ice sheet experienced surface melting over just a few days in mid July, an extremely rare event that has not occurred since 1889, according to measurements reported by NASA scientists. And while the melting episode cannot be linked directly to global warming, it appears to fit into a dramatic trend: a long-term warming of the Arctic that is two to three times faster than the global average. “This is more like weather,”...

Valley Groundwater Threatened if Farm Use Continues at Current Levels

Written on July 22, 2012.

Edward Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee The groundwater that is the lifeblood of many Central Valley farms is imperiled if farmers continue to use it at current levels, according to new research. A recently released study warns that the current depletion rate of the Central Valley aquifer – the large store of underground water the region’s farmers use for irrigation – is unsustainable, and will continue to be so despite the surety that wet years will eventually follow dry ones. The study...