Tag archives for california
Posted by California condors Sisquoc and Shatash welcomed a baby chick this week, in full view of the world watching them via webcam. “With just over 400 California condors in existence, this endangered species is still an uncommon sight, making this hatching all the more significant,” San Diego Zoo Safari Park said in a news statement about…
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John-Michael Lee caught thresher sharks off Redondo Beach in California when he was a boy. “We’d float on a mat in the water, reach down with our hands and just catch them by the tail,” recalls John-Michael. “They were about three to four feet long, but most of that was tail.”
“When I go diving now,” he remarks, “I don’t see many sharks anymore.”
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A breathtaking, albeit often overlooked extension of the California coastline, filmmaker and Young Explorer Justin DeShields will conduct a 1,000-mile transect of the Baja Peninsula, intimately documenting the beautiful expanses of waterfront between major cities.
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While it has become popular to disparage California as, “the once great state,” and bemoan its high taxes, troubled schools, and slow economic recovery, I can’t imagine trading a day on the California coast watching whales or catching waves for a day anywhere else along America’s shoreline or interior. I just went scuba diving off…
Looming Sequester Has Implications for National Weather Forecasting, Energy
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on February 28, 2013 Unless Congress reaches a deal by Friday, a set of automatic spending cuts—known as the sequester—will take effect. According to the Obama Administration, this trigger, for $85 billion worth of across-the-board federal spending cuts, is expected to have significant implications for climate and energy. Newly released estimates by the White House detail how the cuts are projected to impact programs in each state. Decreases in environmental…
Fiscal Cliff Deal Reached, Clean Energy Not Forgotten
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on January 3, 2013 After months of negotiating, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., reached an agreement to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.” Featured in the measure is an extension of a renewable electricity production tax credit for wind, geothermal and some biomass projects, which gives credit for each kilowatt-hour of energy they produce. Highly contested prior to the bill’s passing was the credit’s impact on the wind industry. The credit, which offers 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of…
On Wednesday Dec. 19, a statewide network of California marine parks was completed after twelve years of effort. On Thursday the 20th, President Obama announced the largest expansion of California marine sanctuaries in 20 years. Both events reflect the state’s more than 100 years of leadership in protecting, restoring, and exploring its coastal and ocean…
Posted by Modern gold mining has tools that California’s gold rushing 49ers could only have dreamed of. Some say the process may even be sustainable.
We heard all the suggestions and made a decision. Next week I’ll be making my way to California. It’s the epicenter of innovation, we realized, and a hotbed of great ideas. Got any tips?
Climate Change a Focus for President in Second Term
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 15, 2012 In his first press conference since being re-elected, President Barack Obama acknowledged he’ll focus on climate change in his second term. “I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior, and carbon emissions,” Obama said at a televised news conference on Wednesday. “And as a consequence, I think we’ve got an obligation to…
Climate Change Back on Political Radar after Sandy, Election
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 8, 2012 In his re-election victory speech, President Barack Obama finally touched on a seldom-mentioned issue of the campaign—climate change: “We want our children to live in an America … that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” Whether or not Hurricane Sandy can be attributed to climate change, the storm’s devastating flooding brought…
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The amount of money spent in politics is huge and ever expanding; for the first time, the two main Presidential campaigns raised more than 1 billion dollars. That’s billion with a “b”, a staggering sum. But the role of money extends well beyond big-time presidential politics; it has moved all the way down to state…
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California state leaders have built a network of investment banks for the benefit of all their citizens. It is a truly remarkable achievement – only that the investment is in fish, which in turn will bring money to users of the California coastal ocean in a sustainable way. This is an example that should be followed by all coastal states in the United States.
From Texas to India to the Horn of Africa, Concern about Weather, Water, and Crops
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on March 6, 2012 
Hardly a week goes by without new reasons to be concerned about the impact of changing precipitation patterns and mounting water stress on food production. This past week, officials in Texas cut off irrigation water to rice farmers downstream of reservoirs depleted by the worst one-year drought in Texas history. Even with recent rains,…
Memories of a 1930s Geographic Photo Shoot
Posted by Cathy Hunter on November 17, 2011 Take a trip back in time with a sparkling 99-year-old named Dottie Gross and hear her memories about life in small-town California and appearing in the pages of National Geographic magazine. The photos, by NGS photographer B. Anthony Stewart, feature Dottie and her friends amongst the beautiful wildflowers of Kern County, California using an early color process known as Finlay Colour.
California Adopts Cap-and-Trade System, Serves as Greenhouse Guinea Pig
Posted by Mason Inman on October 27, 2011 After a unanimous vote by the California Air Resources Board, the state adopted the most comprehensive cap-and-trade system in the country, a key part of a 2006 global warming law that had yet to be implemented. The system will cover 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and allows businesses to counterbalance up to…
Meet NG Young Explorers
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on October 11, 2011 
While famous figures continue to make discoveries and lead thrilling expeditions, a new group of National Geographic Young Explorers are laying the foundations for the future. If you’re in D.C., join us at Headquarters this Friday to meet Shannon Switzer, Neil Losin, and Emily Ainsworth.
California Bans Shark Fin Trade
Posted by Anne Marie Houppert on October 11, 2011 A bill in California banning the trade of shark fins has passed, raising controversy in California’s Asian community. The group is the largest consumer of shark fins outside of Asia, and the fins are an ingredient in a soup many consider a delicacy.
Happy 40th, Walt Disney World
Posted by Anne Marie Houppert on September 30, 2011 
Walt Disney World opened forty years ago on October 1, 1971, in Orlando, Florida. The dream of Walter Elias Disney, it created a city out of orange groves and swamps. In his 2007 National Geographic article, T.D. Allman explores the concept of a theme-park nation and how Disney’s utopian dream convinced America to vacation and live in a buggy, swampy area still officially called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
What the California Shark Fin Ban Means
Posted by Valerie Craig of National Geographic's Ocean Initiative in Ocean Views on September 8, 2011 
California Assemblymen Paul Fong (D-Mountain View) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), with the support of conservation organizations, introduced Assembly Bill 376, which bans the possession, sale or trade of shark fins. “It’s a great day for sharks in California,” said Michael Sutton, vice president for Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Center for the Future of the Oceans, a co-sponsor of the legislation.
Ailing Economies Push Richer Countries to Tap Emergency Oil Reserves
Posted by Mason Inman on June 30, 2011 In a move that caught many by surprise, the world’s richer oil-importing countries will soon tap into emergency oil reserves, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced, arguing: “Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery.” In total, over the next 30 days, IEA member countries plan to release 60 million barrels…
Through photographs, conservation photographer Marcy Mendelson documents the work of cheetah ambassadors, wild animals trained to teach appreciation of the species by allowing people to approach and see up close the magnificence of the world’s fastest land mammal.
California Farmers Go Deep into Water Debt During Drought
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on February 28, 2011 
We all know the dangers of not balancing our check books: we could withdraw from our bank accounts more than we’ve deposited, and get fined-or worse-for overdrawing. You’d think we’d manage our groundwater accounts at least as carefully as our bank accounts, especially given that the food security of this and future generations depends on…
Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 22, 2010 Best-selling National Geographic author and speaker Dan Buettner shares the factors that boost quality of life in four of the happiest places on Earth. Photo of Dan Buettner courtesy Blue Zones By Ford Cochran For much of the last decade, Dan Buettner has traveled to the places where people live longest and where they claim…
Posted by It’s tiny, it’s pockmarked, and it’s got almost no atmosphere. So it’s probably small wonder that we cared so little for poor Mercury that we couldn’t be bothered to check out a whole half of the planet until 2008. —Image courtesy NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State University/Carnegie Institute of Washington But when we…
