Blog

Smoky air a reminder not everyone walks away from environmental disasters

When the air in the San Joaquin Valley was thick with smoke during Butte County’s Camp Fire late last year, UC Davis closed its doors to protect students, staff and faculty. Rather than ask us to traverse campus for classes and meetings, the administration told us to steer clear of the bad air by working remotely. My colleagues and I felt lucky working for an institution that cared about our health, and I was grateful to have a well-filtered retreat at home.

Can we win the war against plastic litter one straw at a time?

If you’re planning on going to dinner this weekend, be prepared for a strawless outing as Assembly Bill 1884 is now in effect. The bill became law on January 1 and was designed not only to limit the use of plastic straws, but to raise awareness of how prevalent single-use plastics are in daily life. Although AB 1884 doesn’t completely ban plastic straws from restaurants in California, it does limit their use by making consumers ask for them.

Wildfires: Protecting animals and pets

There’s nothing like a disaster to suddenly reveal how deeply connected we are to our environment and other living things in it. The 2018 wildfire season in California has been the most destructive and deadly ever in our state’s history. This year, some 7,500 fires have burned 1.6 million acres across California, affecting humans and animals alike.

Research that can stand up to the heat

One sweltering week last July, the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center took researchers and officials from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) on a reality tour of some of California’s most polluted communities.  On the tour, scientists saw up close the environmental health issues residents faced — a glass factory next to an elementary school, an oil and gas facility in a residential neighborhood, a formerly agricultural community transformed into an industrial site through

Wildfires: When preparing for the worst is best

When I moved to Sacramento last year I thought I was escaping earthquakes. For years, I lived just down the street from the Hayward Fault in North Berkeley. Our little bungalow on a hill was cute but creaky. I used to joke with my husband that if our house collapsed when The Big One hit we could buy that Airstream he always wanted.

So, it was a relief knowing my family was safe from such a calamity when we moved to Sacramento. Then wildfire season hit.