Government & Business, The Science

Clouds Gather for Scientist who Purloined Documents

1 Comment

Support from Pacific Institute’s board, funders may be wavering

Peter Gleick is a prominent water scientist and a Macarthur Fellow.” credit=”World Economic Forum/Flickr

The furor surrounding Peter Gleick’s admission that he lied in order to get internal documents from the Heartland Institute appears to be gaining momentum, with the board and at least one major funder of Gleick’s Oakland-based Pacific Institute appearing to back-peddle on initial statements of support.

Gleick, who co-founded the Institute, wrote in a blog post earlier this week that he impersonated a Heartland insider to obtain the information, which includes strategy and fundraising details from the organization, a conservative think tank that’s against taking action on climate change.

Gleick has already stepped down from positions with the American Geophysical Union and the National Center for Science Education. Initially the Pacific Institute stood by him, saying in a brief statement posted to its website, Gleick “has been and continues to be an integral part of our team.” That statement is no longer there, replaced yesterday by one that takes a different tone:

The Board of Directors of the Pacific Institute is deeply concerned and is actively reviewing information about the recent events involving its president, Dr. Peter Gleick, and documents pertaining to the Heartland Institute. Neither the board nor the staff of the Pacific Institute knew of, played any role in, or condones these events. As facts emerge and are confirmed, the Board will inform all stakeholders of our findings and of any actions based on these findings.

Continue reading Clouds Gather for Scientist who Purloined Documents →

Water

California, Feds Ratcheting Back on Farm Water

1 Comment

Allocations cut back on major water projects

 ” credit=”Craig Miller

Given the forecast for the final week of February, now it really is down to a “March Miracle” to salvage the California water season.

So this time they didn’t even wait for the next snow survey. Water managers are pulling back on estimates of how much water they’ll deliver to contractors on major water projects. With winter precipitation running about half of normal, today the California managers set probably deliveries at half of what contractors (mostly irrigation districts) on the State Water Project are asking for — that’s ratcheted down from 60%. Continue reading California, Feds Ratcheting Back on Farm Water →

Government & Business, The Science

Resignation and Remorse: Gleick Faces Fallout from Heartland Documents Leak

The Pacific Institute is standing by its founder, but other consequences are piling up

Peter Gleick is a co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a research group based in Oakland.” credit=”Craig Miller/KQED

Climate scientist Peter Gleick, who last night admitted that he was the source of leaked documents from the Heartland Institute, has resigned from the American Geophysical Union’s Task Force on Scientific Ethics. Gleick was chair of the task force, which met for the first time last November. According to a press release from the AGU, Gleick resigned last Thursday — after the explosive documents appeared on various blogs but before his online admission as perpetrator.

He’s also stepped down from a position which he hadn’t yet officially begun with the National Center for Science Education, an organization that advocates for evolution and climate change education in schools. Gleick was scheduled to begin serving on its board this week, but tendered his resignation yesterday.

Continue reading Resignation and Remorse: Gleick Faces Fallout from Heartland Documents Leak →

Government & Business, The Science

Bay Area Scientist Owns up to Lying to Get Heartland Documents

4 Comments

The Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick says he was blinded by frustration when he used subterfuge to obtain and leak the internal documents

Earlier this month, documents were allegedly leaked from the Heartland Institute — a think tank that questions human-caused climate change — which describe elements of the organization’s strategy to discredit climate science, and include background on funders. Now climate scientist Peter Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute, has admitted to using deception to obtain the information.

Continue reading Bay Area Scientist Owns up to Lying to Get Heartland Documents →

The Science

Alpine Chipmunks’ Habitat and Gene Pool are Shrinking

One of the few mammals unique to California is also one of the most threatened by climate change.

The alpine chipmunk only lives in California, and its habitat is shrinking.

The alpine chipmunk, found in Yosemite’s high country, has moved upslope as temperatures have warmed over the last century.

Now a new study out yesterday from the journal Nature Climate Change shows a warming climate may also be affecting the species’ genetic diversity. Listen to my radio story about the study on today’s California Report.

The alpine chipmunk is one of the smallest chipmunks in California. It’s also got a uniquely striped face. It’s hard to see these chipmunks in the wild unless you strap on a backpack and climb some 10,000 feet high in the Sierra.

That’s what study author Emily Rubidge did as a PhD student at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Geology. She’s part of a team that’s been ambitiously updating Joseph Grinnell’s historic survey of Yosemite’s wildlife from the early 1900s.

Continue reading Alpine Chipmunks’ Habitat and Gene Pool are Shrinking →

The Science

Wildfire Trends: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

1 Comment

New research includes first-ever global death toll from landscape fires: more than 300,000

Flames and smoke from the 2011 Slave Lake fire in Alberta. Evacuations are likely to increase, partly from smoke.

Research continues to suggest that this century will be a brutal one for wildfires.

The reasons seem pretty straightforward: “The warmer it gets, the more fires we have,” fire scientist Mike Flannigan told reporters at a major science conference in Vancouver this weekend. Flannigan is a professor at the University of Alberta and also works for Canada’s natural resources agency.

Flannigan says fires already claim an area roughly the size size of India each year (If you’re wondering how that’s even possible, he says the acreage includes grasslands, which can actually burn more than once a year). And he says the toll will rise, driven by three main factors: Continue reading Wildfire Trends: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet →

The Science

KQED Science Team Takes Home National Award

3 Comments

Combined QUEST/Climate Watch unit wins for its report on rising seas

A team of producers and editors at KQED was honored this weekend with a prestigious Kavli Science Journalism Award. Only a few projects are selected each year by the Washington-based American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The KQED team, a collaboration of the QUEST and Climate Watch science reporting units, was recognized in the Television Spot News/Feature Reporting category for its segment on rising sea levels in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In its announcement last fall, AAAS noted:

“The QUEST/Climate Watch co-production ‘used the visual medium of television effectively as it laid out the facts—and uncertainties—surrounding rising sea levels,’ said Richard Harris, a science correspondent for NPR who served as a judge.”

L-R: Amy Miller, Craig Miller, and Rachel Silverman represented the QUEST/Climate Watch team at the Kavli Awards in Vancouver.

Rachel Silverman produced the segment, which I reported. Others honored included QUEST TV series producer Amy Miller, managing editor Paul Rogers, associate producer Lindsay Kelliher, and video editor Linda Peckham.

During the segment, we join scientists for some mud coring along the Marin bayshore, to document prehistoric sea level patterns, review projections for sea levels over the next several decades, talk to urban planners in Hayward who are grappling with decisions on how to protect infrastructure, and visit with residents of the tiny South Bay hamlet of Alviso, which sits several feet below current sea level.

The awards, funded by an endowment from the Kavli Foundation, were announced in November and presented this weekend at the AAAS annual meeting in Vancouver. Winners are chosen by independent panels of science journalists.

Another winner for climate coverage was Christine Peterson of the Caspar Star-Tribune, who, with Kerry Huller and Wes Watson, reported on receding glaciers in Wyoming.

The Science, Water

The “Magic Dust” that Brings More Sierra Snow

Dust from across the Pacific seeds Sierra snowflakes

Researchers found that heavy snowfall in the Sierra is connected to the amount of dust floating over from Asia.

In a weird twist on the “butterfly effect,” evidence is that Asian dust storms can mean more snow in the Sierra. The strange finding surfaced in research by scientists working on NOAA’s CalWater program. Scientists compared two Sierra storms, and found the one that contained dust particles from Asia had 40% more precipitation than the one that did not. The other storm had more particulate matter from sources in California, for instance, from burning trees or grass.

The researchers, including Kim Prather and Doug Collins from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego compared the two storms from the air.

Continue reading The “Magic Dust” that Brings More Sierra Snow →

Government & Business

Challenges for EPA’s Top Man In San Francisco

The latest in our series of television interviews with climate change thought leaders

Just about two years ago, Jared Blumenfeld took charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s largest West Coast office, promising “revolutionary” strides forward. But it’s been a tough slog on the climate front, given the political climate in Washington.

Climate Watch Senior Editor Craig Miller sat down with Jared Blumenfeld, Administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region, to talk climate, green business and smart growth. Their interview airs this weekend on This Week in Northern California, on KQED Public Television 9. The segment is edited from a longer interview; here’s a clip that’s not in the TV version.

Continue reading Challenges for EPA’s Top Man In San Francisco →

Get Involved, The Science

Six Citizen Science Projects that Help Keep Tabs on Climate Impacts

1 Comment

Count some birds, shoot a wave, set out a rain gauge — the sky’s the limit

An iPhone can be a field guide, a tool for recording observations and a way to share data.

Today is the first day of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, when people all over North America tally the birds they see and record their results on the GBBC website. It’s a simple citizen science project to try. Even if you don’t know your birds, you can print out a list of what you’re likely to see in your area to help figure out which bird you’re looking at. And as the four-day project progresses, you can watch results come in from all over the continent.

The Bird Count is important to scientists, too. The information you collect helps answer questions about how bird populations are doing and how migrating birds are responding to the weather or climate change

But the Great Backyard Bird Count is far from the only citizen science project worth trying. While some science is done by people in crisp white lab coats, with specialized tools, a lot of it isn’t. Scientists don’t just work in labs, they don’t just use beakers and Bunsen burners, and most of the time they’re not wearing lab coats.

Also: you don’t have to be a scientist to do science.

Continue reading Six Citizen Science Projects that Help Keep Tabs on Climate Impacts →