LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs and puppies this week joining its group of adoptable dogs.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian cattle dog, Doberman pinscher, Dogo Argentino, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, husky, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd and treeing walker coonhound.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Harley’
“Harley” is a 6-month-old female German Shepherd puppy with a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-4024.
Male border collie
This 2-year-old male border collie has a black and white coat.
This 2-month-old female treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 16d, ID No. LCAC-A-3927.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 17a, ID No. LCAC-A-3921.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 17b, ID No. LCAC-A-3922.
Male Rottweiler-Australian cattle dog cross
This 5-year-old male Rottweiler-Australian cattle dog cross has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-3942.
Female treeing walker coonhound
This young female treeing walker coonhound has a short black brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3776.
‘Tracy’
“Tracy” is a 2-year-old female Dogo Argentino with a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-3952.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-3780.
Male German shepherd
This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
Shelter staff called him a “handsome sweet dude who is motivated by treats and does well walking on a leash.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-3870.
Female husky
This 1-year-old female husky has a cream and black coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3893.
‘Poppy’
“Poppy” is a 4-month-old female Great Pyrenees with a short white and gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3790.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3930.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative hit a major milestone of removing one million cubic yards of litter from the state’s roadsides since the program’s inception less than 15 months ago.
That’s more than 16,700 tons of litter — enough to build two stacks of trash from the Earth’s surface to beyond the International Space Station, 250 miles in orbit.
“California is the most beautiful place in the world, and we need to do more to keep our communities clean and safe,” said Gov. Newsom. “With an investment of over $1 billion, Clean California projects are cleaning up our neighborhoods and enriching our public spaces by removing litter and debris from our roadsides throughout our state.”
Clean California is a sweeping $1.1 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans to remove trash, create thousands of jobs, and engage communities to transform public spaces.
Since Clean California launched in July 2021, Caltrans has removed 300 percent more litter from the state highway system compared to 2020 and hired 759 new team members, including maintenance workers who collect litter and remove graffiti.
“Removing 1 million cubic yards of trash from our roadways is a very big step toward fulfilling Governor Newsom’s vision for Clean California. I salute the many communities joining this effort to make our state cleaner, safer and more beautiful,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares.
Along with roadside cleanup efforts, Caltrans has held 180 free Dump Day events statewide to allow Californians to safely dispose of bulk items, collecting more than 18,000 tires and 5,000 mattresses.
Clean California also offers a $250 monthly volunteer incentive stipend through the Adopt-A-Highway program, increasing highway adoptions by nearly 1,000. These highway adopters have collected 3,000 cubic yards of trash during the past 15 months.
Clean California grants have funded 231 projects to revitalize and beautify underserved communities, some of which are already complete and now sources of community pride. The recently enacted state budget includes $100 million to fund another round of Clean California local grant projects.
For more information on how to transform your community and become a part of Clean California, visit CleanCA.com.
LUCERNE, Calif. — Lucerne Elementary School District is among 11 school districts that have been awarded a total of $33.7 million to repair or construct early education facilities throughout the state.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the grants, which are part of the $490 million Access California Preschool, Transitional Kindergarten and Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program.
“California is committed to increasing opportunity and equity for every student across the state, regardless of their Zip code or background,” said Gov. Newsom. “We’ve made major strides over the years to expand services to support young children and their families and provide access to free, high-quality, inclusive prekindergarten education for all children. This funding is critical for school districts to construct the facilities necessary to support the expanded learning time.”
The program, administered by the Department of General Services Office of Public School Construction, provides funding to school districts that lack the facilities to provide full-day programs for preschool, transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten.
Forty-seven projects for 44 school districts — including Lucerne Elementary, the only Lake County District — were initially funded in the 2019-20 fiscal year to create 147 new Title V compliant classrooms.
In that first round, the State Allocation Board at its October 2019 meeting apportioned $1,683,516 for Lucerne Elementary.
Due to its successful implementation, the program was expanded to include preschool and transitional kindergarten facilities.
At its meeting on Wednesday, the State Allocation Board awarded approximately $33.7 million for 11 projects within 11 school districts statewide.
The projects are located within Lake, Kern, Kings, Merced, Monterey and Tulare counties.
In this latest round, Lucerne Elementary received $2,018,191, according to the meeting documents.
The state matching funds for program projects are distributed to local school districts to help finance new school construction projects or the retrofit of existing classrooms, the Department of General Services reported.
State officials said funding priority is given to school districts that lack financial resources to provide a local match and/or are located in an underserved community.
Lucerne Elementary Superintendent Megan Grant said the early education grant is for the construction of two new transitional kindergarten classrooms.
“We are excited to continue to expand our school capacity with brand-new classrooms,” Grant said.
The Office of Public School Construction will distribute the funds to eligible school districts in two phases.
The first phase provides funding to assist school districts in the design of the project, and the second phase provides funding to assist in the construction of the project.
Additional funding is expected to be allocated at the State Allocation Board’s October meeting.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Electric planes might seem futuristic, but they aren’t that far off, at least for short hops.
Two-seater Velis Electros are already quietly buzzing around Europe, electric sea planes are being tested in British Columbia, and larger planes are coming. Air Canada announced on Sept. 15, 2022, that it would buy 30 electric-hybrid regional aircraft from Sweden’s Heart Aerospace, which expects to have its 30-seat plane in service by 2028. Analysts at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab note that the first hybrid electric 50- to 70-seat commuter plane could be ready not long after that. In the 2030s, they say, electric aviation could really take off.
That matters for managing climate change. About 3% of global emissions come from aviation today, and with more passengers and flights expected as the population expands, aviation could be producing three to five times more carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aerospace engineer and assistant professor Gökçin Çınar develops sustainable aviation concepts, including hybrid-electric planes and hydrogen fuel alternatives, at the University of Michigan. We asked her about the key ways to cut aviation emissions today and where technologies like electrification and hydrogen are headed.
Why is aviation so difficult to electrify?
Aircraft are some of the most complex vehicles out there, but the biggest problem for electrifying them is the battery weight.
If you tried to fully electrify a 737 with today’s batteries, you would have to take out all the passengers and cargo and fill that space with batteries just to fly for under an hour.
Jet fuel can hold about 50 times more energy compared to batteries per unit mass. So, you can have 1 pound of jet fuel or 50 pounds of batteries. To close that gap, we need to either make lithium-ion batteries lighter or develop new batteries that hold more energy. New batteries are being developed, but they aren’t yet ready for aircraft.
Even though we might not be able to fully electrify a 737, we can get some fuel burn benefits from batteries in the larger jets by using hybrid propulsion systems. We are trying to make that happen in the short term, with a 2030-2035 target for smaller regional planes. The less fuel burned during flight, the fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
How does hybrid aviation work to cut emissions?
Hybrid electric aircraft are similar to hybrid electric cars in that they use a combination of batteries and aviation fuels. The problem is that no other industry has the weight limitations that we do in the aerospace industry.
That’s why we have to be very smart about how and how much we are hybridizing the propulsion system.
Using batteries as a power assist during takeoff and climb are very promising options. Taxiing to the runway using just electric power could also save a significant amount of fuel and reduce the local emissions at airports. There is a sweet spot between the added weight of the battery and how much electricity you can use to get net fuel benefits. This optimization problem is at the center of my research.
Hybrids would still burn fuel during flight, but it could be considerably less than just relying entirely on jet fuel.
I see hybridization as a mid-term option for larger jets, but a near-term solution for regional aircraft.
For 2030 to 2035, we’re focused on hybrid turboprops, typically regional aircraft with 50-80 passengers or used for freight. These hybrids could cut fuel use by about 10%.
With electric hybrids, airlines could also make more use of regional airports, reducing congestion and time larger planes spend idling on the runway.
What do you expect to see in the near term from sustainable aviation?
Shorter term we’ll see more use of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAF. With today’s engines, you can dump sustainable aviation fuel into the same fuel tank and burn it. Fuels made from corn, oilseeds, algae and other fats are already being used.
Sustainable aviation fuels can reduce an aircraft’s net carbon dioxide emissions by around 80%, but supply is limited, and using more biomass for fuel could compete with food production and lead to deforestation.
A second option is using synthetic sustainable aviation fuels, which involves capturing carbon from the air or other industrial processes and synthesizing it with hydrogen. But that’s a complex and costly process and does not have a high production scale yet.
Airlines can also optimize their operations in the short term, such as route planning to avoid flying nearly empty planes. That can also reduce emissions.
Is hydrogen an option for aviation?
Hydrogen fuel has been around a very long time, and when it’s green hydrogen – produced with water and electrolysis powered by renewable energy – it doesn’t produce carbon dioxide. It can also hold more energy per unit of mass than batteries.
There are two ways to use hydrogen in an airplane: either in place of regular jet fuel in an engine, or combined with oxygen to power hydrogen fuel cells, which then generate electricity to power the aircraft.
The problem is volume – hydrogen gas takes up a lot of space. That’s why engineers are looking at methods like keeping it very cool so it can be stored as liquid until it’s burned as a gas. It still takes up more space than jet fuel, and the storage tanks are heavy, so how to store, handle or distribute it on aircraft is still being worked out.
Due to the variety of options, I see hydrogen as one of the key technologies for sustainable aviation.
Will these technologies be able to meet the aviation industry’s goals for reducing emissions?
The problem with aviation emissions isn’t their current levels – it’s the fear that their emissions will increase rapidly as demand increases. By 2050, we could see three to five times more carbon dioxide emissions from aviation than before the pandemic.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, generally defines the industry’s goals, looking at what’s feasible and how aviation can push the boundaries.
Its long-term goal is to cut net carbon dioxide emissions 50% by 2050 compared with 2005 levels. Getting there will require a mix of different technologies and optimization. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to reach it by 2050, but I believe we must do everything we can to make future aviation environmentally sustainable.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Many great dogs are waiting for their new homes at Clearlake Animal Control.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The following dogs are available for adoption. New additions are at the top.
‘Mikey’
“Mikey” is a male German shepherd mix with a short brown and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51012855.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Babs’
“Babs” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49505856.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49951647.
‘Buster’
“Buster” is a male pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50762164.
‘Foxie’
“Foxie” is a female German shepherd with a red, black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49702845.
‘Hakuna’
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
‘Keilani’
“Keilani” is a 3-year-old female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed and she is house trained.
She is dog No. 50427566.
‘Luciano’
“Luciano” is a male Siberian husky mix with a short black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596272.
‘Mamba’
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Sadie’
“Sadie” is a female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49802563.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball is a 1 and a half year old male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Teddy’
“Teddy” is a male retriever mix with a cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49583194.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596003.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The California Department of Public Health this week warned school leaders about a new and concerning “rainbow fentanyl” drug that may interest youth.
In a letter to superintendents and charter school administrators, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Tomás J. Aragón warned that “rainbow fentanyl” is a potentially fatal drug found in pills and powders in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes that could attract young people.
“Rainbow fentanyl can be found in many forms, including pills, powder, and blocks that can resemble sidewalk chalk or candy,” said Dr. Aragón. “Any pill, regardless of its color, shape, or size, that does not come from a health care provider or pharmacist can contain fentanyl and can be deadly."
In its letter, CDPH points to a recent warning from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency that notes the highly addictive and potentially deadly “rainbow fentanyl” has been found in at least 18 states.
Anyone who encounters fentanyl in any form should not handle it and should call 911 immediately.
Recognizing the signs of opioid overdose can save a life. Here are some things to look for:
• Small, constricted “pinpoint pupils.” • Falling asleep or losing consciousness. • Slow, weak, or no breathing. • Choking or gurgling sounds. • Limp body. • Cold and/or clammy skin. • Discolored skin (especially in lips and nails).
It may be hard to tell if a person is high or experiencing an overdose. If you aren’t sure, treat it like an overdose. Here are the steps that could save a life:
• Call 911 immediately. • Administer naloxone, if available. • Try to keep the person awake and breathing. • Lay the person on their side to prevent choking. • Stay with the person until emergency help arrives.
Get more facts about Fentanyl from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some California schools have created naloxone policies in response to increases in opioid overdoses among youth. Naloxone is a life-saving medication used to reverse an opioid overdose.
CDPH encourages schools that are interested in developing these policies and receiving free naloxone to review relevant regulations and apply for a Statewide Standing Order for Naloxone.
The California Department of Health Care Services Naloxone Distribution Project offers free naloxone to qualified organizations, including schools and universities.
Visit the CDPH Overdose Prevention Initiative site for more information, including resources for adult role models and educators.
One planet is 30% larger than Earth and orbits its star in less than three days. The other is 70% larger than the Earth and might host a deep ocean. These two exoplanets are super-Earths – more massive than the Earth but smaller than ice giants like Uranus and Neptune.
Earth is still the only place in the universe scientists know to be home to life. It would seem logical to focus the search for life on Earth clones – planets with properties close to Earth’s. But research has shown that the best chance astronomers have of finding life on another planet is likely to be on a super-Earth similar to the ones found recently.
Common and easy to find
Most super-Earths orbit cool dwarf stars, which are lower in mass and live much longer than the Sun. There are hundreds of cool dwarf stars for every star like the Sun, and scientists have found super-Earths orbiting 40% of cool dwarfs they have looked at. Using that number, astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of super-Earths in habitable zones where liquid water can exist in the Milky Way alone. Since all life on Earth uses water, water is thought to be critical for habitability.
Based on current projections, about a third of all exoplanets are super-Earths, making them the most common type of exoplanet in the Milky Way. The nearest is only six light-years away from Earth. You might even say that our solar system is unusual since it does not have a planet with a mass between that of Earth and Neptune.
Another reason super-Earths are ideal targets in the search for life is that they’re much easier to detect and study than Earth-sized planets. There are two methods astronomers use to detect exoplanets. One looks for the gravitational effect of a planet on its parent star and the other looks for brief dimming of a star’s light as the planet passes in front of it. Both of these detection methods are easier with a bigger planet.
Super-Earths are super habitable
Over 300 years ago, German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued that Earth was the “best of all possible worlds.” Leibniz’s argument was meant to address the question of why evil exists, but modern astrobiologists have explored a similar question by asking what makes a planet hospitable to life. It turns out that Earth is not the best of all possible worlds.
Due to Earth’s tectonic activity and changes in the brightness of the Sun, the climate has veered over time from ocean-boiling hot to planetwide, deep-freeze cold. Earth has been uninhabitable for humans and other larger creatures for most of its 4.5-billion-year history. Simulations suggest the long-term habitability of Earth was not inevitable, but was a matter of chance. Humans are literally lucky to be alive.
Researchers have come up with a list of the attributes that make a planet very conducive to life. Larger planets are more likely to be geologically active, a feature that scientists think would promote biological evolution. So the most habitable planet would have roughly twice the mass of the Earth and be between 20% and 30% larger by volume. It would also have oceans that are shallow enough for light to stimulate life all the way to the seafloor and an average temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius). It would have an atmosphere thicker than the Earth’s that would act as an insulating blanket. Finally, such a planet would orbit a star older than the Sun to give life longer to develop, and it would have a strong magnetic field that protects against cosmic radiation. Scientists think that these attributes combined will make a planet super habitable.
By definition, super-Earths have many of the attributes of a super habitable planet. To date, astronomers have discovered two dozen super-Earth exoplanets that are, if not the best of all possible worlds, theoretically more habitable than Earth.
To detect life on distant exoplanets, astronomers will look for biosignatures, byproducts of biology that are detectable in a planet’s atmosphere.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was designed before astronomers had discovered exoplanets, so the telescope is not optimized for exoplanet research. But it is able to do some of this science and is scheduled to target two potentially habitable super-Earths in its first year of operations. Another set of super-Earths with massive oceans discovered in the past few years, as well as the planets discovered this summer, are also compelling targets for James Webb.
Astronomers know that the ingredients for life are out there, but habitable does not mean inhabited. Until researchers find evidence of life elsewhere, it’s possible that life on Earth was a unique accident. While there are many reasons why a habitable world would not have signs of life, if, over the coming years, astronomers look at these super habitable super-Earths and find nothing, humanity may be forced to conclude that the universe is a lonely place.
The surviving spouse has important estate administration duties at the death of the first spouse to die (i.e., “the deceased spouse”). These sometimes go neglected until the surviving spouse dies. The surviving spouse needs to examine how the deceased spouse’s assets are titled.
Real properties may be held by a husband and wife as tenants in common, as joint tenancy assets, as community property, as community property with right of survivorship, or as trustee(s) if the asset is held in trust.
Assets held as tenants in common, or by the deceased spouse in his or her name alone, are subject to the deceased spouse’s will or, if no will exists, the laws of intestacy.
Furthermore, during life California law generally presumes that all assets acquired by married people while married and domiciled in California are community property (section 760 Family Code).
This general presumption is rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence. The presumption applies during the couple’s lifetime and, specifically in divorce or creditor proceedings involving either spouse, but, importantly, does not apply at death at which time the form of title controls (In re Brace (2020) 9 C5th 903).
If the deceased spouse died without a will then the deceased spouse’s separate property goes by intestacy to the deceased spouse’s surviving spouse and children, if relevant. Any community property goes entirely to the surviving spouse by intestacy.
Assets that belong to the deceased spouse individually and require a court order for a surviving spouse to inherit title are still not required to pass through probate. That is true whether or not such assets pass under a will or by intestacy. A so-called spousal property petition can be used to retitle assets from the deceased spouse into the surviving spouse’s name alone.
Other assets may transfer either by right of survivorship or by trust administration. Assets held in trust require private trust administration. Trust administration, however, is not self-executing and has similarities with a court probate administration. Unfortunately, the administration of a joint husband and wife trust often goes ignored by the surviving spouse.
Some married couples have joint trusts that requires the deceased spouse’s share of the trust assets to be transferred into an irrevocable by-pass trust (i.e., a so-called “A-B” Trust) — where the deceased spouse’s assets are held and administered until the death of the surviving spouse — then failing to divide the joint trust at the deceased spouse’s death means bigger problems later on when the surviving spouse dies.
Assets where the surviving spouse while alive could have filed a spousal property petition to remove the deceased spouse from title will require a probate of the surviving spouse’s estate. Only a personal representative of the surviving spouse’s probate can file a spousal property petition to transfer assets from the deceased spouse to the surviving spouse’s estate.
After the surviving spouse has settled the deceased spouse’s estate, the surviving spouse can then more completely update his or her own estate planning. This is work that usually cannot fully be accomplished until the deceased spouse’s name is removed from title to assets.
The foregoing discussion is not legal advice. Consult an attorney if facing these legal issues.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
The summer of 2022 started with a historic flood in Montana, brought on by heavy rain and melting snow, that tore up roads and caused large areas of Yellowstone National Park to be evacuated.
In between, wildfires raged through California, Arizona and New Mexico on the background of a megadrought in Southwestern U.S. that has been more severe than anything the region has experienced in at least 1,200 years. Near Albuquerque, New Mexico, a five-mile stretch of the Rio Grande ran dry for the first time in 40 years. Persistent heat waves lingered over many parts of the country, setting temperature records.
The United States is hardly alone in its share of climate disasters.
In Pakistan, record monsoon rains inundated more than one-third of the country, killing over 1,500 people. In India and China, prolonged heat waves and droughts dried up rivers, disrupted power grids and threatened food security for billions of people.
In Europe, heat waves set record temperatures in Britain and other places, leading to severe droughts and wildfires in many parts of the continent. In South Africa, torrential rains brought flooding and mudslides that killed more than 400 people. The summer may have come to an end on the calendar, but climate disasters will surely continue.
This isn’t just a freak summer: Over the years, such extreme events are occurring in increasing frequency and intensity.
Climate change is intensifying these disasters
The most recent international climate assessment from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found significant increases in both the frequency and intensity of extreme temperature and precipitation events, leading to more droughts and floods.
A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature found that extreme flooding and droughts are also getting deadlier and more expensive, despite an improving capacity to manage climate risks. This is because these extreme events, enhanced by climate change, often exceed the designed levels of such management strategies.
Extreme events, by definition, occur rarely. A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of happening in any given year. So, when such events occur with increasing frequency and intensity, they are a clear indication of a changing climate state.
The term “global warming” can sometimes be misleading, as it seems to suggest that as humans put more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the world is going to get a bit warmer everywhere. What it fails to convey is that warming temperatures also lead to a more violent world with more extreme climate disasters, as we saw this past summer.
Climate models showed these risks were coming
Much of this is well-understood and consistently reproduced by climate models.
As the climate warms, a shift in temperature distribution leads to more extremes. The magnitudes of changes in extreme temperature are often larger than changes in the mean. For example, globally, a 1 degree Celsius increase in annual average temperature is associated with 1.2 C to 1.9 C (2.1 Fahrenheit to 3.4 F) of increase in the annual maximum temperature.
In addition, global warming causes changes in the vertical profile of the atmosphere and equator-to-pole temperature gradients, leading to changes in how the atmosphere and ocean move. The temperature difference between equator and the poles is the driving force for global wind. As the polar regions warm at much higher rates then the equator, the reduced temperature difference causes a weakening of global winds and leads to a more meandering jet stream.
Some of these changes can create conditions such as persistent high-pressure systems and atmosphere blocking that favor more frequent and more intense heat waves. The heat domes over the Southern Plains and South in June and the West in September are examples.
The initial warming can be further amplified by positive feedbacks. For example, warming increases snow melt, exposing dark soil underneath, which absorbs more heat than snow, further enhancing the warming.
Warming of the atmosphere also increases its capacity to hold water vapor, which is a strong greenhouse gas. Therefore, more water vapor in the air leads to more warming. Higher temperatures tend to dry out the soil, and less soil moisture reduces the land’s heat capacity, making it easier to heat up.
These positive feedbacks further intensify the initial warming, leading to more heat extremes. More frequent and persistent heat waves lead to excessive evaporation, combined with decreased precipitation in some regions, causing more severe droughts and more frequent wildfires.
This increased humidity leads to heavier rainfall events. In addition, storm systems are fueled by latent heat, or the large amount of energy released when water vapor condenses to liquid water. Increased moisture content in the atmosphere also enhances latent heat in storm systems, increasing their intensity. Extreme heavy or persistent rainfall leads to increased flooding and landslides, with devastating social and economic consequences.
Even though it’s difficult to link specific extreme events directly to climate change, when these supposedly rare events occur with increasing frequency in a warming world, it is hard to ignore the changing state of our climate.
The new abnormal
So this past summer might just provide a glimpse of our near future, as these extreme climate events become more frequent.
To say this is the new “normal,” though, is misleading. It suggests that we have reached a new stable state, and that is far from the truth.
Without serious effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, this trend toward more extreme events will continue. Things will keep getting worse, and this past summer will become the norm a few years or decades down the road – and eventually, it will seem mild, like one of those “nice summers” we look back on fondly with nostalgia.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — County officials on Friday confirmed a case of monkeypox in Lake County.
On Friday evening, the Lake County Health Services Department reported that it had received confirmation that a case of monkeypox infection was identified in Lake County earlier in the day.
“Given the positive test result, Health Services is conducting an extensive contact investigation and working to prevent additional cases,” the agency said in its Friday report.
The individual affected is an adult Lake County resident who had recently traveled and later became aware of their exposure, officials said.
Health Services said the person is symptomatic and recovering and isolating at home; there is no evidence of community spread in Lake County at this time.
“The risk to the public posed by monkeypox is relatively low, but we are taking every reasonable action, including proactive measures to mitigate further spread,” said Lake County’s Health Services Director Jonathan Portney in a written statement. “We are diligently working to facilitate vaccine allocations for people at highest risk, understanding the vaccine is currently in extremely limited supply.”
This is the first monkeypox case the county of Lake has confirmed. The state dashboard also has not previously indicated a confirmed case.
As of Friday, the California Department of Public Health reported there were 4,886 confirmed monkeypox cases in the state. Of those, 190 have been hospitalized.
Among Lake’s neighboring counties, there were eight cases each in Napa and Yolo, and 43 in Sonoma. No numbers were reported for Colusa, Glenn or Mendocino counties.
Monkeypox is rarely fatal. Symptoms are similar to those of smallpox, but milder and typically Include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, muscle aches and backache, headache, respiratory symptoms (e.g. sore throat, nasal congestion, or cough), and a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus.
Sometimes, people only experience a rash which can initially look like pimples or blisters and may be painful or itchy. The rash goes through different stages and often resolves in two to four weeks on its own.
Officials said there are treatments available if needed, but they usually are not necessary.
People with monkeypox are infectious and should isolate until the rash resolves.
There are steps people can take to protect themselves from monkeypox, including asking intimate and other sexual partners about symptoms, avoiding skin-to-skin or prolonged face-to-face contact with anyone who has symptoms, practicing safer sex (such as reducing the number of sexual partners), keeping hands clean and maintaining respiratory etiquette.
People with symptoms should call their healthcare provider to determine the need for testing.
Visit the Public Health website for up-to-date facts on monkeypox, information to limit risk of exposure and to avoid misinformation.
On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA plans to change an asteroid’s orbit.
The large binary asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos currently pose no threat to Earth. But by crashing a 1,340-pound (610-kilogram) probe into Didymos’ moon at a speed of approximately 14,000 mph (22,500 kph), NASA is going to complete the world’s first full-scale planetary defense mission as a proof of concept. This mission is called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.
I am a scholar who studies space and international security, and it is my job to ask what the likelihood really is of an object crashing into the planet – and whether governments are spending enough money to prevent such an event.
To find the answers to these questions, one has to know what near-Earth objects are out there. To date, NASA has tracked only an estimated 40% of the bigger ones. Surprise asteroids have visited Earth in the past and will undoubtedly do so in the future. Experiments like the DART mission may help prepare humanity for such an event.
The threat from asteroids and comets
Millions of cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, orbit the Sun and often crash into the Earth. Most of these are too small to pose a threat, but some can be cause for concern. Near-Earth objects include asteroids and comets whose orbits will bring them within 120 million miles (193 million kilometers) of the Sun.
Astronomers consider a near-Earth object a threat if it will come within 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers) of the planet and if it is at least 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter. If a celestial body of this size crashed into Earth, it could destroy an entire city and cause extreme regional devastation. Larger objects – 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) or more – could have global effects and even cause mass extinctions.
But smaller objects can also cause significant damage. In 1908, an approximately 164-foot (50-meter) celestial body exploded over the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia. It leveled more than 80 million trees over 830 square miles (2,100 square kilometers). In 2013, an asteroid only 65 feet (20 meters) across burst in the atmosphere 20 miles (32 kilometers) above Chelyabinsk, Russia. It released the equivalent of 30 Hiroshima bombs’ worth of energy, injured over 1,100 people and caused US$33 million in damage.
The likely next asteroid of substantial size to potentially hit Earth is asteroid 2005 ED224. When the 164-foot (50-meter) asteroid passes by on March 11, 2023, there is roughly a 1 in 500,000 chance of impact.
Congress recognized this threat, and in the 1998 Spaceguard Survey, it tasked NASA to find and track 90% of the estimated total of near-Earth objects 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) across or bigger within 10 years. NASA surpassed the 90% goal in 2011.
As of Sept. 18, 2022, astronomers have located 29,724 near-Earth asteroids, of which 10,189 are 460 feet (140 meters) or larger in diameter and 855 are at least 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) across. About 30 new objects are added each week.
We can prevent a disaster only if we know it is coming, and asteroids have sneaked up on Earth before.
A so-called “city-killer” asteroid the size of a football field passed less than 45,000 miles (72,420 kilometers) from Earth in 2019. An asteroid the size of a 747 jet came close in 2021, as did an asteroid 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) wide in 2012. Each of these was discovered only about a day before it passed Earth.
Research suggests that Earth’s rotation creates a blind spot, hiding some asteroids from detection or making them appear stationary. This may be a problem, as some surprise asteroids do not miss us. In 2008, astronomers spotted a small asteroid only 19 hours before it crashed into rural Sudan.
The recent discovery of an asteroid 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in diameter suggests that there are still big objects lurking.
What can be done?
To protect the planet from cosmic dangers, early detection is key. At the 2021 Planetary Defense Conference, scientists recommended a minimum of five to 10 years’ preparation time to mount a successful defense against hazardous asteroids.
If astronomers find a dangerous object, there are four ways to mitigate a disaster. The first involves regional first-aid and evacuation measures. A second approach would involve sending a spacecraft to fly near a small- or medium-sized asteroid; the gravity of the craft would slowly change the object’s orbit. To change a bigger asteroid’s path, we can either crash something into it at high speed or detonate a nuclear warhead nearby.
The DART mission will be the first-ever attempt to deflect a large asteroid. But this will not be the first time humanity has sent something to an asteroid. NASA’s Deep Space Impact mission crashed a probe into the comet 9P/Tempel in 2005 to take scientific measurements of the comet, and in 2018 Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu and brought them back to Earth, but neither of these was designed as a planetary defense test.
Investing in planetary defense is akin to buying homeowners insurance. The likelihood of experiencing an event that destroys your house is small, yet people buy insurance nonetheless.
If even a single object larger than 460 feet (140 meters) hits the planet, the devastation and loss of life would be extreme. A bigger impact could quite literally wipe out most species on Earth. Even if no such body is expected to hit Earth in the next 100 years, the chance is not zero. In this low-likelihood-versus-high-consequences scenario, investing in protecting the planet from dangerous cosmic objects may give humanity some peace of mind and could prevent a catastrophe.
This is an updated version of a story originally published on March 1, 2022.
On Thursday, the Department of the Interior announced that it has invested over $7.5 million in fiscal year 2022 funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance wildfire resilience work and support fuels management projects in California on 9,969 acres of land across the state.
This is part of $103 million allocated by the Department earlier this year to reduce wildfire risk, mitigate impacts and rehabilitate burned areas.
The additional funding will help complete fuels treatments on nearly two million acres nationwide this fiscal year, a substantial increase over the prior year.
“As climate change drives harsher heat waves, more volatile weather, and record drought conditions, we are seeing wildfire seasons turn to wildfire years, threatening communities, businesses, wildlife and the environment,” said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau. “Through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are investing in California communities, advancing wildfire resilience work across the country, improving resources for the heroic firefighting workforce, and reducing the risk of wildfire.”
The announcement comes as Deputy Secretary Beaudreau is in the Western U.S. this week to highlight how investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are advancing wildfire resilience and drought resilience.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is bringing much-needed support to communities across the country to increase the resilience of lands facing the threat of wildland fires and to better support federal wildland firefighters.
The law includes $1.5 billion for the Department of Interior over the next five years to invest in preparedness, fuels management, post-fire restoration and fire science.
It also directs major reforms for federal wildland firefighters, including temporary pay increases and a new occupational series classification more specific to firefighters.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments in wildland fire management in California will increase fuels treatment in areas with high wildfire hazard potential, helping to protect homes and businesses in the wildland-urban interface and public drinking water.
These efforts will promote climate resiliency across landscapes and communities and will employ Tribal members, youth and veterans.
A portion of this year’s wildfire resilience funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to continue development of a wildfire risk mapping and mitigation tool, which is being developed jointly with USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.
The tool will assist land managers in collectively identifying potential wildfire risks and sharing planned and accomplished mitigation activities.
The law also provides increased support to the Joint Fire Science Program, an interagency partnership with the USDA Forest Service that funds wildfire science research projects.
The department’s recently released Five-year Monitoring, Maintenance, and Treatment Plan to address wildfire risk laid out a road map for achieving these objectives in coordination with federal, non-federal, and tribal partners. In combination with the USDA Forest Service’s 10-Year Wildfire Crisis Strategy, these plans outline the monitoring, maintenance, and treatment strategy the agencies will use to address wildfire risk, better serve communities, and improve conditions on all types of lands where wildfires can occur.