Subscribe
New faces, new vitality, reflection and celebration — 2012 brought all that, and more, to UC Berkeley. Here’s a glance back at the year, in pictures.
Tag: climate change
Scientists discover new materials to capture key greenhouse gas
April 17, 2013:
Scientists at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered new materials that can soak up methane, a substantial and growing driver of global climate change.
Experts sound alarm over “perfect storm” in African Sahel
April 9, 2013:
The African Sahel, beset with impacts from climate change and the most rapidly growing population in the world, could descend into large-scale drought, famine, war and terrorist control if immediate steps are not taken, according to a new report by experts from UC Berkeley and the African Institute for Development Policy.
Law prof’s book reveals human cost of climate change
February 8, 2013:
New book by Andrew Guzman, Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change, predicts a grim future for billions of people in this century.
Cloud forest trees drink water through their leaves
December 12, 2012:
Using water flow sensors and plastic “leaves” that sense wetness, UC Berkeley biologists have discovered that trees living in tropical mountaintop cloud forests drink through their leaves as well as their roots. Todd Dawson and Greg Goldsmith of integrative biology note, however, that studies show that the clouds are disappearing because of climate change.
Scientists look to Hawaii’s bugs for clues to origins of biodiversity
November 21, 2012:
The Hawaiian Islands are a perfect laboratory for learning how plants and animals colonize new ecological niches, since every time a volcano sticks its head above the waves, life invades. A new $2 million grant from the NSF will allow UC Berkeley researchers to study how insects and spiders explore new niches and create new biodiversity on the newest of the islands, Hawaii.
USAID chief lauds Blum Center as model in search for global solutions
October 11, 2012:
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visited campus and encouraged students to join the search for open source solutions to pressing global problems.
Cal Energy Corps interns field-test smart solutions
September 24, 2012:
More than 30 Berkeley undergrads shared experiences, adventures and insights from their summer internships during the second annual Cal Energy Corps symposium at the David Brower Center Thursday.
Deborah Berke awarded new Berkeley-Rupp Prize for advancing women in architecture, contributing to sustainability
September 10, 2012:
Deborah Berke, a New York City-based architect known for her design excellence and commitment to architectural innovation, is the first recipient of the College of Environmental Design’s inaugural Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize.
Studies shed light on why species stay or go in response to climate change
August 15, 2012:
Two new studies by UC Berkeley scientists provide a clearer picture of why some species move — and where they go — in response to climate change. One found a dramatic decline in populations of a mountain ground squirrel, except where humans lived. Another paper finds that precipitation is an underappreciated driving force for species’ response to climate change.
State taps UC researchers for expertise on climate change impacts
August 1, 2012:
Some 15 UC Berkeley researchers were among scores of California experts who submitted papers to the California Energy Commission detailing how climate change will impact the state on the local and regional level.
U.S. could quadruple biofuel use in 25 years, experts say
July 2, 2012:
UC Berkeley scientists Chris Somerville and Heather Youngs of the Energy Biosciences Institute argue in The Scientist that within 25 years, the U.S. could scale up biofuel production to meet 30 percent of the nation’s demand for liquid transportation fuel, four times the current contribution.
Hindcasting helps scientists improve forecasts for life on Earth
June 12, 2012:
Scientists at UC Berkeley have launched a unique program, the Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology, to use hindcasting – “predicting” what happened during past episodes of climate change – to improve the reliability and accuracy of computer models that forecast how plants and animals will adapt to a changing planet.
Analysis of global fire risk shows big, fast changes ahead
June 12, 2012:
Climate change is widely expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world — with some regions, such as the western U.S., seeing more frequent fires within the next 30 years, according to a new analysis led by UC Berkeley researchers in collaboration with an international team of scientists. The study used 16 different climate-change models to produce one of the most comprehensive projections to date of how climate change might affect global fire patterns.
Kammen to lead Fulbright scholars in addressing climate adaptation
June 7, 2012:
The U.S. Department of State has chosen Daniel Kammen, professor of energy and resources, as the 2012-2013 Fulbright NEXUS Lead Scholar. Kammen will lead a group of Fulbright scholars focusing on science, technology and innovation; entrepreneurship; and sustainable energy related to climate change adaptation technologies.
Scientists uncover evidence of impending tipping point for Earth
June 6, 2012:
UC Berkeley professor Tony Barnosky and 21 scientists from around the world argue in Nature magazine that planet Earth is frighteningly close to a tipping point that would send the globe into a state that could spell disaster for humans. The new Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology is focused on recognizing the signs of impending doom so that we can stop short of the precipice.
Computer model pinpoints prime materials for efficient carbon capture
May 27, 2012:
To slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and thus slow climate change, electric power plants will eventually have to start capturing their carbon dioxide emissions and burying them underground. Chemist Berend Smit and colleagues are working with the power industry to find the best materials to capture and sequester carbon dioxide.
Scientists core into Clear Lake to explore past climate change
May 3, 2012:
One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. UC Berkeley scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today’s flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.
Work by newly hired professor pinpoints causes of 450 million-year-old mass extinction
April 11, 2012:
Seth Finnegan, a Caltech post-doc who will join the UC Berkeley faculty in the summer, has pinpointed the conditions that triggered one of Earth’s five major mass extinctions: the one that occurred 450 million years ago at the end of the Ordovician Period. Glaciation lowered sea level and eliminated a lot of marine habitat, while cold killed off tropical marine species.
Fertilizer use responsible for increase in nitrous oxide in atmosphere
April 2, 2012:
UC Berkeley chemists have analyzed the isotopic composition of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas – in air samples from as far back as 1940 and found the fingerprint of nitrogen-based fertilizer, proving definitively that the 20 percent increase in atmospheric nitrogen since the Industrial Revolution is largely due to the Green Revolution.
New material cuts energy costs of separating gas for plastics and fuels
March 29, 2012:
In producing hydrocarbons for the chemical industry, refiners must first crack oil at high temperatures and then cool the mixture to liquefy the gases for separation. This energy-intensive chilling step could be eliminated thanks to a new material that can do the gas separation at high temperature.
Tyler Prize honors Kirk Smith’s work on air pollution and health
March 20, 2012:
Kirk Smith, UC Berkeley professor of global environmental health, has been named one of two winners of the prestigious 2012 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The award recognizes Smith’s work identifying the health hazards of household smoke from cookstoves, a major source of air pollution in the developing world and a contributor to climate change.
Cal Energy Corps offers summer internships
February 23, 2012:
The Cal Energy Corps is offering summer 2012 internships in hands-on energy and climate research around the world — from Brazil to Germany to Ghana to China. Undergraduates have until March 18 to apply.
Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks take genetic hit from climate change
February 19, 2012:
Global warming has driven Yosemite’s alpine chipmunks to higher ground, prompting a startling decline in the species’ genetic diversity. The genetic erosion occurred in the relatively short span of 90 years, highlighting the rapid threat changing climate can pose to a species, and putting the alpine chipmunk on a trajectory toward extinction.
The key to biofuel’s carbon footprint? Location, location, location
February 3, 2012:
Determining the climate impact of using grass to make cellulosic ethanol depends on how and where it’s grown, processed and transported, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters. Key factors affecting the greenhouse-gas emissions of cellulosic ethanol production were the amount of soil carbon emitted or stored during growth of the grass, and greenhouse-gas offset credits for electricity exported to the grid by biorefineries, said the authors, who are UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute.
Climate change and business research initiative gains traction
January 6, 2012:
Environmentalists and corporations don’t always see eye-to-eye on climate change. But the Climate Change and Business Research Initiative has shown that the two sides’ objectives can not only co-exist, but be mutually beneficial. The program — connecting leaders from business, government, nonprofits — is run jointly by the law schools at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
Dan Kammen, Jay Keasling in ‘Future of Energy’ on Discovery Channel tonight
December 22, 2011:
Two of UC Berkeley’s top energy experts – Dan Kammen of the Energy and Resources Group and Jay Keasling of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering – are interviewed extensively for one segment of a new Discovery Channel video, “Earth 2050: The Future of Energy,” which airs Thursday night, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m. PST.
Can ‘carbon ranching’ offset emissions in California?
December 12, 2011:
Could cultivating dense fields of weeds help mitigate climate change by soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? Berkeley scientists Dennis Baldocchi and Whendee Silver are exploring that possibility in California’s agricultural heartland, the San Joaquin Valley. National Public Radio reports.
Grad student finds inspiration in the clouds
October 25, 2011:
UC Berkeley graduate student Greg Goldsmith may have his head in the clouds, but he is firmly grounded in the reality of global warming and the danger it poses to the Central American cloud forests he loves. He developed an elementary school curriculum as a way to help save them.
Berkeley team confirms reality of global warming
October 20, 2011:
Physicist Richard Muller and a team of Berkeley statisticians, physicists and climatologists began a project earlier this year to reanalyze 1.6 billion temperature records, some dating back to 1800, to address some of the concerns of climate change skeptics. Their conclusions confirm that global warming is real.
