Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) is recognizing the 87th Anniversary of Social Security by vowing to preserve this critical program that helps protect our nation’s most vulnerable and provides beneficiaries a lifeline that empowers them to live a life of dignity and buy necessities from groceries to prescription drugs.
“Social Security has been a promise to our country’s workers and their families for generations to reward them for decades of hard work,” said Thompson. “This year’s anniversary is yet another reminder of the longevity of the program and the importance of ensuring its solvency for years to come. That’s why I am a proud cosponsor of Social Security 2100 to enhance benefits and improve the cost-of-living adjustment for every beneficiary.”
Thompson said 145,474 constituents in his district receive Social Security benefits every year, “and we must ensure these benefits keep up with the needs of beneficiaries.”
Thompson continued, “Each month, Social Security pays $236 million in benefits to people in our district. That money, in large part, is spent in our district. This program is not only vital to our seniors, but to their families and our local economy as well. As our nation combats the COVID pandemic and addresses rising prices, we must enhance and protect the program American workers pay into with each and every paycheck.
“While Democrats are working to protect and expand Social Security, extreme MAGA Republicans have unveiled a plan to end Social Security and Medicare in five years. They have also proposed raising taxes on middle class families, which would make it even harder for Californians to prepare for retirement.
“Social Security beneficiaries are made up of our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, and our children. Unjustified attempts to end the program as we know it will target some of our country’s most vulnerable communities, including seniors, women, people of color, and people with disabilities. Countless retirees, widows, and their children rely on their well-earned Social Security funds to survive. I will always be committed to fighting to protect Social Security in Congress,” he said.
Social Security was established on Aug. 14, 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. This provided for a new federally administered insurance program for the elderly.
It started off as old-age insurance for individuals, but has grown into a cornerstone of American life, providing comprehensive benefits for retirees and persons with disabilities and their families.
Congressman Mike Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors will get a presentation on the work of a county conservation district and consider an abatement case this week.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 916 4540 5320, pass code 931427. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16694449171,,91645405320#,,,,*931427#.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
In timed items, at 9:15 a.m. the board will hear the annual report from the Lake County Resource Conservation District.
At 9:30 a.m., the board will consider a notice of nuisance and order to abate for 5145 W. State Highway 20 in Upper Lake.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Approve amendment to the participation agreement between county of Lake and the California Mental Health Services Authority for the Superior Regional Partnership - HCAI WET Grant for FYs 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 in the Amount of $54,479.27 and authorize the Behavioral Health Services director and board chair to sign.
5.2: Adopt resolution authorizing the standard agreement between the county of Lake and the Department of Health Care Services for the period of July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2027, and authorizing the Behavioral Health director to sign the standard agreement and the contractor certification clause for the County Mental Health Plan.
5.4: Approve lease agreement for office space at 14092 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake in the amount of $3,170.20 per month and authorize the board chair to sign.
5.5: Approve purchase of 2023 Ford Explorer from Downtown Ford Sales for the Building & Safety Division in the amount of $33,298.15 and authorize the Community Development director or their designee to sign the purchase order.
5.6: Approve Board of Supervisors minutes for Aug. 2, 2022.
5.7: Approve and authorize the chair to sign the following agreements: a) between the county of Lake and Leonard’s Hauling and Tractor, for nuisance abatement and nuisance abatement within the Road Map Task Force area, in an amount not to exceed $150,000; and b) between the county of Lake and Cook Construction and Engineering Partners for nuisance abatement and nuisance abatement within the Road Map Task Force area, in an amount not to exceed $150,000; and c) between the county of Lake and 360 Junk Removal and Hauling, for nuisance abatement and nuisance abatement within the Road Map Task Force area, in an amount not to exceed $150,000.
5.8: Sitting as the Lake County Watershed Protection District, (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County’s Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services and (b) authorize the Lake County Watershed Protection District to sign and enter into Amendment No. 1 of Agreement with CivicWell for independent contractor services through the AmeriCorps CivicSpark Fellowship in the amount of $29,000 for one (1) CivicSpark Fellow to develop an Aquatic Invasive Species Outreach Assessment and Improvement Plan.
5.9: Adopt resolution of intent to conduct a public hearing for the consideration of the vacation of a portion of a roadway known as Forest Lake Drive (CR#128) in the Cobb area.
5.10: (a) Approve agreement between the Lake County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Forest Service for FY 22/23 annual operating and financial plan, in the amount of $20,000 for Pillsbury Patrol; and (b) approve agreement between the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Forest Service for FY22/23 annual operating and financial plan, in the amount of $10,000 for controlled substance operations, and (c) authorize the sheriff and the chairman to sign.
TIMED ITEMS
6.3, 9:15 a.m.: Presentation of an annual report on the activities of Lake County Resource Conservation District.
6.4, 9:30 a.m.: Continued from July 12, hearing on notice of nuisance and order to abate for 5145 W. State Highway 20, Upper Lake (APN 003-023-12).
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of the following Advisory Board Appointments: Emergency Medical Care Committee and Lakeport Fire Protection District.
7.3: Consideration of proposed agreement for the Spring Valley CSA #2 Quail Trail Project, Bid No. SD 22-24.
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.
July 2022 will go down in the history books as the third-hottest July on record for the U.S., according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
From drought to deluge, the nation saw remarkable extremes last month. Drought conditions intensified or expanded across parts of the U.S., while others were hit by historic rainfall that led to catastrophic flooding.
Below are more takeaways from NOAA’s latest monthly U.S. climate report.
Climate by the numbers:
July 2022
The average temperature across the contiguous U.S. last month was 76.4 degrees F (2.8 degrees above average), making July 2022 the third-hottest July in the 128-year climate record. Only July 1936 (first) and July 2012 (second) were hotter.
Texas felt the brunt of the heat, reporting its hottest July, May-July and April-July on record. Near-record warmth also covered locations from the Pacific Northwest to the south-central U.S., and across parts of the Northeast. Oregon had its fourth-hottest July on record, with Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Rhode Island sweltering through their top-five warmest Julys on record.
The average July precipitation was 2.74 inches (0.04 of an inch below average), ranking in the middle third of the historical record. Kentucky saw its fourth-wettest July due to record rainfall during the last week of the month. Elsewhere, Rhode Island saw its second-driest July while Texas had its fifth driest.
Year to date (January through July 2022)
The year-to-date (YTD) average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 52.7 degrees F (1.4 degrees above the average), ranking in the warmest-third YTD on record. Temperatures were above average from Oregon to the Gulf Coast and northward to New England. California and Florida each ranked sixth warmest on record for the YTD.
The first seven months of 2022 saw an average precipitation of 16.58 inches (1.51 inches below average), which ranked in the driest third of the record. Precipitation was below average across much of the West, central Plains and Deep South for this YTD period. California had its driest January-July on record, while Nevada and Texas saw their second driest and Utah saw its fourth driest.
Other notable climate events
Catastrophic flooding ravaged communities: On July 26, several locations in and around St. Louis, Missouri, received more rainfall than any other day on record. A stalled weather system combined with tropical moisture resulted in precipitation totals that rivaled daily records set by the remnants of the Galveston Hurricane of 1915. St. Louis’ Lambert International Airport reported 8.64 inches and St. Peters, Missouri, measured 12.34 inches of rain from this event. The extreme rainfall caused flash flooding, resulting in at least one fatality as well as extensive damage to homes and businesses.
Flash flooding from the same system impacted portions of eastern Kentucky on the early morning of July 28. Heavy rain, enhanced by the hilly terrain, accumulated rapidly — trapping many residents in their homes. Four-to-eight inches of rain were widespread across eastern Kentucky and the Kentucky River crested to an all-time high in both Whitesburg and Jackson, Kentucky. The flooding resulted in at least 37 fatalities.
Drought increased in coverage and intensity: According to the August 2 U.S. Drought Monitoroffsite link report, 51.4% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought, up about 3.7% from the end of June. Drought conditions expanded or intensified across portions of the Northeast, with flash drought rapidly expanding in the southern and central Plains, Ozarks and the mid-Mississippi Valley. Drought decreased or was eliminated across portions of the Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, northern Rockies as well as Alaska and Puerto Rico.
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
The world’s largest multinational tobacco companies are advertising cigarettes to kids near playgrounds and schools in 42 majority low- and middle-income countries. That’s the key finding of our recently published paper.
Through our on-the-ground data collection at 19,500 points of sale, we identified tobacco industry advertising and promotions demonstrating four common tactics. These include displaying cigarettes near snacks, sweets and sugary drinks; placing cigarette advertisements near children’s eye level; marketing flavored cigarettes through ads and/or product displays; and selling single cigarette sticks.
We collected data on how cigarettes are marketed and sold within 250 meters, or about 820 feet, of one or more schools and/or playgrounds in more than 100 cities around the globe. The locations included most capital cities and spanned Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America and South America.
Many jurisdictions throughout the world have implemented laws prohibiting advertising of tobacco products on radio, television and billboards. As a result, comparably less restricted point-of-sale opportunities have become a critical component of tobacco company marketing strategies. This includes the “Big Four” global giants: Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Tobacco.
Our findings, summarized below, show that the tobacco industry uses point-of-sale advertising widely, and consistently targets youth.
• In 90% of the countries we studied, cigarettes were displayed near junk food or sugary drinks, including some self-serve displays within children’s reach.
• We found ads or displays promoting flavored cigarettes, which are known to appeal to minors, in 76% of the countries we studied.
• Points of sale in all 42 majority low- and middle-income countries displayed cigarette advertising at kids’ eye level, featuring “Big Four” tobacco products or ads.
Experts have also established links between point-of-sale advertising and smoking-related behaviors and beliefs, like misperceptions that smoking is less harmful than it really is and a lower likelihood of quitting smoking.
What’s next
Our work focused on what consumers see and did not differentiate between products that were on sale legally versus those sold illicitly.
The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty ratified by 182 parties and covering more than 90% of the world’s population, recommends a variety of evidence-based strategies to counteract these marketing tactics. These include comprehensive bans on tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship, plain tobacco packaging, large graphic health warnings on tobacco packs, bans on single-stick cigarette sales, and regulation of flavors.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has six cats and kittens available for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
‘Simon’
“Simon” is a big 2-year-old gray tabby with white markings.
He is in cat room kennel No. A10, ID No. LCAC-A-3814.
‘Olive’
“Olive” is a female domestic medium hair kitten with a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. A117, ID No. LCAC-A-3742.
‘Willow’
“Willow” is a female domestic shorthair cat with a gray and white coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 47, ID No. LCAC-A-3762.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has a gray tabby coat with white markings.
He is in cat room kennel No. A1b, ID No. LCAC-A-3663.
Female gray tabby
This 2-year-old female gray tabby has a short coat with white markings.
She is in cat room kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-3661.
Domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has an all-black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 84c, ID No. LCAC-A-3616.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many more dogs needing new homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of catahoula leopard dog, dachshund, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd, terrier 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.
Male Labrador retriever mix
This 5-year-old male Labrador retriever mix has a short gold coat.
He is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-3737.
Female pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier has a black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-3856.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3855.
Male Rottweiler-shepherd mix
This male Rottweiler-shepherd mix puppy has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-3851.
Female husky
This 2-year-old female husky has a gray and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-3852.
Female catahoula leopard dog mix
This 2-year-old female catahoula leopard dog mix has a short brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-3768.
Female hound mix
This 1-year-old female hound mix has a short brown and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-3766.
Male hound mix
This 1-year-old male hound mix has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-3767.
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.
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.
Female Labrador retriever
This 7-year-old female Labrador retriever mix has a short gold coat.
She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-3821.
Male shepherd mix
This 1-year-old male shepherd mix has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-3796.
Labrador retriever-hound mix
This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever-black and tan coonhound mix has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-3849.
Female Great Pyrenees
This young female Great Pyrenees has a gray and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3790.
Male Great Pyrenees
This young male Great Pyrenees has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3791.
‘Maya’
“Maya” is a 2-year-old female German shepherd with a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-2598.
Female dachshund
This 3-year-old female dachshund has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-3863.
Female Great Pyrenees
This young female Great Pyrenees has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-3789.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — An Upper Lake man has entered a plea in a 2020 homicide as part of an agreement with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, Christopher Jon McDonald, 45, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder for the killing of 48-year-old John Turner Dickerson of Nice, said Deputy District Attorney Daniel Flesch.
Flesch said McDonald is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 26.
McDonald is facing a stipulated 25 years to life when sentenced. Andrea Sullivan, McDonald’s defense attorney, told Lake County News that McDonald will be eligible for parole.
The plea came ahead of McDonald’s trial, which was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Flesch said.
“Had Mr. McDonald gone to trial and lost, he could’ve faced 50 years to life, because of California’s 25 year to life enhancement for great bodily injury events or deaths resulting from a firearm,” Sullivan told Lake County News in an email.
“Additionally, a prosecutor can add a special circumstance allegation at any time prior to trial. If that were to occur, and Mr. McDonald was convicted, he would have been sentenced to life In the state prison without the possibility of parole,” Sullivan said.
Dickerson reportedly came to Lake County from the East Coast. His badly decomposed remains were found in the Mendocino National Forest on Aug. 9, 2020, as Lake County News has reported.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the remains were believed to have been in the forest for several weeks by the time they were discovered.
An autopsy that took place the same week that the remains were recovered determined they were those of Dickerson, and that he had died from a gunshot wound.
The investigation led to a search warrant service at McDonald’s property and, in early May 2021, the sheriff’s office obtained an arrest warrant for McDonald, who was taken into custody shortly after the warrant was issued.
At the time of McDonald’s arrest, authorities did not disclose a possible motive for the killing.
However, Flesch told Lake County News that it was “likely a drug deal gone bad.”
Flesch said Dickerson had allegedly “lost” 30 pounds of marijuana that belonged to McDonald.
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.
With many nations making efforts to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, SciLine interviewed Erin Baker, a professor of industrial engineering and operations at UMass Amherst. Baker discussed the technological, political and regulatory efforts needed for this transition, as well as ways that our fossil fuel-dependent system disproportionately harms poor communities and communities of color.
The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the discussion, which have been edited for brevity and clarity.
How is our country doing at making the transition to renewable energy?
Erin Baker: There has been amazing technological change over the past 15 years. Offshore wind costs 50% less than it did six years ago. Solar has had a sixfold decrease in costs since 2010. And I think there’s a lot of evidence that technology will adapt and improve if we set the goals and incentives for it.
In terms of policy and regulations, we are moving forward, but we need to be more aggressive. Something that we’re missing and that would be really helpful would be a coherent, federal-level climate policy – whether that is regulatory policy, such as we have for pollution, or a carbon tax or some kind of a cap. The Inflation Reduction Act would be a fantastic starting point if it becomes law.
A good example of something that has been done is President Biden’s move to coordinate and streamline the federal approval process for offshore wind. There are seven federal agencies involved, and having them all separate and moving at their own pace was really difficult for offshore wind energy developers. So Biden has coordinated that, and that’s fantastic. But there are tens of local and state-level agencies and processes that developers still have to go through. It would be really great if we could figure out ways to coordinate and streamline those.
How does our current energy system disproportionately harm poor communities and communities of color?
Erin Baker: Unfortunately, in a lot of different ways. Polluting facilities tend to be located disproportionally in areas that are low income and home to people of color, which can lead to negative health outcomes. Also, in the Texas blackout last winter that killed around 250 people, some research done by my colleague Jay Teneja showed that the long blackouts were four times as likely in communities of color as in predominantly white communities. And, unfortunately, the energy transition won’t necessarily be any more equitable.
For example, it’s common for states to subsidize rooftop solar. And this is good, but the people who get the subsidies are people who own roofs with sun shining on them. People who live in apartments and in cities don’t have access to this, and yet they’re paying for the subsidies. We take the money for the subsidies from everyone, including low-income people, and send them mostly to white, wealthy suburbs.
How can injustices in our energy system be rectified?
Erin Baker: There’s obviously no one solution, but there are a couple of categories of things we can do. One thing that would be really helpful would be to collect data. We have very little data about energy equity issues.
We also need to involve and listen to the traditionally marginalized communities that are most affected by the inequities.
What do you think of the federal and state targets set for offshore wind?
Erin Baker: The Biden administration set a target for 30 gigawatts by 2030. That’s an ambitious goal, since in 2019 the entire world had only 30 GW. But it’s growing rapidly, with global capacity at an astounding 56 GW.
Having this goal of 30 gigawatts helps to organize the supply chain – all the pieces that need to get done for this to happen. We need people who know how to install offshore wind farms. We need special ships. We need planning for transmission. Having these goals really helps to organize all that and make sure all these pieces are in place.
What are the environmental costs and benefits of offshore wind?
Erin Baker: Offshore wind is a really promising technology. The ocean has really good wind resources. And it’s near population centers – we have lots of cities up and down the coasts. Because wind energy is carbon-free, it will provide benefits by reducing emissions and reducing costs.
Some of the work I’ve done has shown that there are billions, and maybe even trillions, of dollars of climate value in offshore wind. We lose between US$10 million and $150 million per year per wind farm by delaying them. We really want to keep these large global environmental benefits in mind as we plan. These can be balanced against local environmental costs and benefits, as well as other factors, like jobs.
In terms of local environmental benefits, when you build an offshore wind farm, the stuff underneath the water ends up creating an artificial reef and actually increasing sea life in that area, which is a benefit.
Negatively, they interfere with bird migrations. Birds don’t actually fly into the wind turbines that much. They fly around them. But if there are a lot of wind farms, that’s a lot of flying around, and that can be hard on the birds. And some animals, like right whales, can get caught in mooring lines if we have floating wind turbines. So, there are local environmental costs. What we need to do is balance these with the global benefits from addressing climate change.
Are you hopeful about our ability to address climate change?
Erin Baker: I am optimistic that we can solve climate change, because humans are very inventive. My work on technological change has shown that once we have a goal or incentive, we tend to improve technologies much faster than we ever predicted. So I think we can be ambitious. We can aim for net-zero by 2030 instead of 2050. And we can solve climate change while at the same time stimulating innovation, fueling growth and increasing quality of life. But we have to set these goals. To access the benefits of the energy transition, we really need to act boldly and decisively.
Watch the full interview to hear more about what’s required for a just, renewable energy transition.
SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.
The Earth is approximately 1.1℃ warmer than it was at the start of the industrial revolution. That warming has not been uniform, with some regions warming at a far greater pace. One such region is the Arctic.
A new study shows that the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world over the past 43 years. This means the Arctic is on average around 3℃ warmer than it was in 1980.
This is alarming, because the Arctic contains sensitive and delicately balanced climate components that, if pushed too hard, will respond with global consequences.
Why is the Arctic warming so much faster?
A large part of the explanation relates to sea ice. This is a thin layer (typically one metre to five metres thick) of sea water that freezes in winter and partially melts in the summer.
The sea ice is covered in a bright layer of snow which reflects around 85% of incoming solar radiation back out to space. The opposite occurs in the open ocean. As the darkest natural surface on the planet, the ocean absorbs 90% of solar radiation.
When covered with sea ice, the Arctic Ocean acts like a large reflective blanket, reducing the absorption of solar radiation. As the sea ice melts, absorption rates increase, resulting in a positive feedback loop where the rapid pace of ocean warming further amplifies sea ice melt, contributing to even faster ocean warming.
This feedback loop is largely responsible for what is known as Arctic amplification, and is the explanation for why the Arctic is warming so much more than the rest of the planet.
Is Arctic amplification underestimated?
Numerical climate models have been used to quantify the magnitude of Arctic amplification. They typically estimate the amplification ratio to be about 2.5, meaning the Arctic is warming 2.5 times faster than the global average. Based on the observational record of surface temperatures over the last 43 years, the new study estimates the Arctic amplification rate to be about four.
Rarely do the climate models obtain values as high that. This suggests the models may not fully capture the complete feedback loops responsible for Arctic amplification and may, as a consequence, underestimate future Arctic warming and the potential consequences that accompany that.
How concerned should we be?
Besides sea ice, the Arctic contains other climate components that are extremely sensitive to warming. If pushed too hard, they will also have global consequences.
One of those elements is permafrost, a (now not so) permanently frozen layer of the Earth’s surface. As temperatures rise across the Arctic, the active layer, the topmost layer of soil that thaws each summer, deepens. This, in turn, increases biological activity in the active layer resulting in the release of carbon into the atmosphere.
Arctic permafrost contains enough carbon to raise global mean temperatures by more than 3℃. Should permafrost thawing accelerate, there is the potential for a runaway positive feedback process, often referred to as the permafrost carbon time bomb. The release of previously stored carbon dioxide and methane will contribute to further Arctic warming, subsequently accelerating future permafrost thaw.
A second Arctic component vulnerable to temperature rise is the Greenland ice sheet. As the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere, it contains enough frozen ice to raise global sea levels by 7.4 metres if melted completely.
When the amount of melting at the surface of an ice cap exceeds the rate of winter snow accumulation, it will lose mass faster than it gains any. When this threshold is exceeded, its surface lowers. This will quicken the pace of melting, because temperatures are higher at lower elevations.
This feedback loop is often called the small ice cap instability. Prior research puts the required temperature rise around Greenland for this threshold to be be passed at around 4.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. Given the exceptional pace of Arctic warming, passing this critical threshold is rapidly becoming likely.
Although there are some regional differences in the magnitude of Arctic amplification, the observed pace of Arctic warming is far higher than the models implied. This brings us perilously close to key climate thresholds that if passed will have global consequences. As anyone who works on these problems knows, what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council is set to consider awarding the bid to construct the Lakefront Park Project and discuss having staff develop a plan to prepare for drought.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
On Tuesday, City Manager Kevin Ingram will ask the council to award a construction contract to Builder Solutions Inc. for the Lakefront Park Project in the amount of $4,399,381, and authorize Ingram to execute the construction contract subject to legal review.
The contract originally had been on the council’s July 19 agenda, but it had been pulled due to a bid protest filed by the other bidder, Granite Construction Co., on July 18 over Builder Solutions’ failure to provide the Public Works Contractor Registration number for themselves and all the subcontractors, Ingram wrote in his staff report.
Ingram said staff has determined this fact was immaterial because they were able to confirm the numbers through the California Department of Industrial Relations’ online registration portal.
He said the city researched all the claims made by Granite as well as those in a letter from the Construction Industry Force Account Council and a bid “advisory” from the Foundation for Fair Contracting.
Staff is recommending awarding the bid in the amount of $4,499,381 to Builder Solutions, Ingram said.
Builder Solutions has a business model that utilizes a professional employment organization, which leases employees to the company as a form of “co-employment,” so Building Solutions itself claims no employees.
As a result, Ingram said staff is recommending the city hire a labor compliance consultant using the city’s consultant procurement policy to mitigate potential for violations and claims. That will cost an estimated $100,000.
Also on Tuesday, Public Works Superintendent Ron Ladd will ask the council to adopt the resolution approving the Forbes Creek Neighborhood Improvement Project Study and authorize the city manager or designee to implement this plan.
The council also will hold a public hearing to introduce proposed text amendments to the city’s sign ordinance, which Community Development Director Jenni Byers said will allow signs to be seen from State Route 29 for Major Centers, as well as clarify the maximum height requirements for signage.
Utilities Superintendent Paul Harris also will give an update on current drought conditions and review existing water conservation measures and seek council direction to begin the development of a comprehensive drought response plan.
In other business, Police Chief Brad Rasmussen will present the 2022 police after action report on the Independence Day fireworks operations and the council will consider approving the purchase of a utility truck for the Park Department.
On the consent agenda — items usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on Aug. 2; warrants; adoption of a resolution authorizing continued remote teleconference meetings of the Lakeport City Council and its legislative bodies pursuant to Government Code section 54953(e); approval of event application 2022-023, with staff recommendations, for the 2022 Climb Out of the Darkness event; approval of event application 2022-022, with staff recommendations, for the City Wide Sidewalk Sale; authorize the city manager to sign a three-year purchase agreement with Cartegraph Systems LLC; cancellation of the regular City Council meeting on Oct. 4 and approve the participation of the city of Lakeport in the National Night Out event, with street closures and the Gazebo reserved for the event.
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.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. — HistoriCorps has announced that a group of its volunteers will be working at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park to help restore the two historic outhouses and the smokehouse located at the park, as well as doing some repair on the ranch house itself.
The work will occur from Oct. 16 to 21 and Oct. 23 to 28.
While working at the state historic park located in Lower Lake, HistoriCorps volunteers will be camping at Clear Lake State Park, located nearby in Kelseyville.
The Anderson Ranch House is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Lake County, with construction beginning in the mid-19th century.
It has been furnished by State Parks to provide an opportunity for the public to experience what life was like on a working cattle ranch in Lake County between 1850 and 1920.
The preservation work at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park will include stabilizing, reinforcing and painting the three outbuildings located to the north of the Ranch House, as well as painting part of the Ranch House and doing needed repairs on the windows.
HistoriCorps is a nonprofit organization that provides volunteers with a hands-on experience preserving historic structures on public lands across America.
Volunteers work with HistoriCorps field staff to learn preservation skills and put those skills to work saving historic places that may otherwise fall into disrepair.
According to HistoriCorps, there is no cost to volunteer, and HistoriCorps provides all meals, tools, training, equipment and a campsite.
Volunteers are responsible for their own transportation to the campsite, sleeping equipment, work gloves, clothes and boots.
For information about Anderson Marsh State Historic Park, visit www.andersonmarsh.org or contact Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association at either This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-995-2658.
BERKELEY, Calif. — Over the last 25 years, astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around stars in our galaxy, but more than 99% of them orbit smaller stars — from red dwarfs to stars slightly more massive than our sun, which is considered an average-sized star.
Few have been discovered around even more massive stars, such as A-type stars — bright blue stars twice as large as the sun — and most of the exoplanets that have been observed are the size of Jupiter or larger. Some of the brightest stars in the night sky, such as Sirius and Vega, are A-type stars.
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers now report a new, Neptune-sized planet — called HD 56414 b — around one of these hot-burning, but short-lived, A-type stars and provide a hint about why so few gas giants smaller than Jupiter have been seen around the brightest 1% of stars in our galaxy.
Current exoplanet detection methods most easily find planets with short, rapid orbital periods around their stars, but this newly found planet has a longer orbital period than most discovered to date. The researchers suggest that an easier-to-find Neptune-sized planet sitting closer to a bright A-type star would be rapidly stripped of its gas by the harsh stellar radiation and reduced to an undetectable core.
While this theory has been proposed to explain so-called hot Neptune deserts around redder stars, whether this extended to hotter stars — A-type stars are about 1.5 to 2 times hotter than the sun — was unknown because of the dearth of planets known around some of the galaxy’s brightest stars.
“It's one of the smallest planets that we know of around these really massive stars,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Steven Giacalone. “In fact, this is the hottest star we know of with a planet smaller than Jupiter. This planet's interesting first and foremost because these types of planets are really hard to find, and we're probably not going to find many like them in the foreseeable future.”
Hot Neptune desert
The discovery of what the researchers term a “warm Neptune” just outside the zone where the planet would have been stripped of its gas suggests that bright, A-type stars may have numerous unseen cores within the hot Neptune zone that are waiting to be discovered through more sensitive techniques.
“We might expect to see a pileup of remnant Neptunian cores at short orbital periods” around such stars, the researchers concluded in their paper.
The discovery also adds to our understanding of how planetary atmospheres evolve, said Courtney Dressing, UC Berkeley assistant professor of astronomy.
“There's a big question about just how do planets retain their atmospheres over time,” Dressing said. “When we're looking at smaller planets, are we looking at the atmosphere that it was formed with when it originally formed from an accretion disk? Are we looking at an atmosphere that was outgassed from the planet over time? If we're able to look at planets receiving different amounts of light from their star, especially different wavelengths of light, which is what the A stars allow us to do — it allows us to change the ratio of X-ray to ultraviolet light — then we can try to see how exactly a planet keeps its atmosphere over time.”
Giacalone and Dressing reported their discovery in a paper accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters and posted online on Aug. 12.
According to Dressing, it’s well-established that highly-irradiated, Neptune-sized planets orbiting less massive, sun-like stars are rarer than expected. But whether this holds for planets orbiting A-type stars is not known because those planets are challenging to detect.
And an A-type star is a different animal from smaller F, G, K and M dwarfs. Close-in planets orbiting sun-like stars receive high amounts of both X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, but close-in planets orbiting A-type stars experience much more near-ultraviolet radiation than X-ray radiation or extreme ultraviolet radiation.
“Determining whether the hot Neptune desert also extends to A-type stars provides insight into the importance of near-ultraviolet radiation in governing atmospheric escape,” she said. “This result is important for understanding the physics of atmospheric mass loss and investigating the formation and evolution of small planets.”
The planet HD 56414 b was detected by NASA’s TESS mission as it transited its star, HD 56414. Dressing, Giacalone and their colleagues confirmed that HD 56414 was an A-type star by obtaining spectra with the 1.5-meter telescope operated by the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) Consortium at Cerro Tololo in Chile.
The planet has a radius 3.7 times that of Earth and orbits the star every 29 days at a distance equal to about one-quarter the distance between Earth and the sun. The system is roughly 420 million years old, much younger than our sun’s 4.5-billion-year age.
The researchers modeled the effect that radiation from the star would have on the planet and concluded that, while the star may be slowly whittling away at its atmosphere, it would likely survive for a billion years — beyond the point at which the star is expected to burn out and collapse, producing a supernova.
Giacalone said that Jupiter-sized planets are less susceptible to photoevaporation because their cores are massive enough to hold onto their hydrogen gas.
“There's this balance between the central mass of the planet and how puffy the atmosphere is,” he said. “For planets the size of Jupiter or larger, the planet is massive enough to gravitationally hold on to its puffy atmosphere. As you move down to planets the size of Neptune, the atmosphere is still puffy, but the planet is not as massive, so they can lose their atmospheres more easily.”
Giacalone and Dressing continue to search for more Neptune-sized exoplanets around A-type stars, in hopes of finding others in or near the hot Neptune desert, to understand where these planets form in the accretion disk during star formation, whether they move inward or outward over time, and how their atmospheres evolve.
The work was supported by a FINESST award from NASA (80NSSC20K1549) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2019-69648).
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.