UC Green

Blue + Gold = Green. The University of California is devoted to healthy people and a healthy planet. Read about our latest discoveries in sustainability, green living and the future made bold.

By University of California

Wounded sea turtle healed with 3-D printing
Fiat Lux - UC San Diego
Birch Aquarium has teamed up with UC San Diego Library’s Digital Media Lab to create what is believed to be the first 3-D-printed brace for a sea turtle’s shell. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle was rescued a
How climate denial blogs undermine scientific understanding
Fiat Lux - By Kat Kerlin, UC Davis
Four ways to determine credibility1. Follow the data — Data trails of skeptics go cold quickly.2. Follow the money — Some prominent climate deniers are linked to think tanks that downplay human-caused
UC’s #MyLastTrash campaign asks you to help push campuses toward zero waste
Fiat Lux - By Andy Murdock, UC Newsroom
That’s the question the new University of California #MyLastTrash campaign is hoping you’ll ask yourself. The University of California system is pushing to reach its goal of zero waste by 2020. That would
Hang ten (decades): Walter Munk, inventor of the surf forecast, turns 100
theconversation.com - Paul Spence and Shane Keating
As dawn washes over Bondi Beach, you can see the surfers beyond the break, gently rising and falling on their boards. They gather like this when the …
UCLA research puts wildfire risk into historic context
Fiat Lux - By Amani Itani, UCLA
This month’s wildfires in Northern California have been the deadliest in United States history, with more than 40 deaths, hundreds still missing and widespread mandatory evacuations. One of the conditions
3D Orchards: UC Researcher Turns Farms Into Virtual Reality
kvpr.org - Ezra David Romero
Farmers are relying more and more on technology to help them manage their crops and often that means working with unmanned aerial systems. Using …
How California might look if it was 100 percent carbon neutral
ocregister.com - Kurt Snibbe
This week, Gov. Jerry Brown joined several other governors at the U.S. Climate Alliance in New York, saying: “We’re all in and we’ll keep going and …
New reports detail how to limit global warming, warn of ‘existential’ risk from not acting soon
Fiat Lux - By Andy Murdock, UC Newsroom
Two new studies released during the United Nations’ Climate Week find that global temperature increases can be limited to the Paris Agreement goal of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but
The Window Is Closing to Avoid Dangerous Global Warming
scientificamerican.com - Jean Chemnick, ClimateWire
Deadly climate change could threaten most of the world's human population by the end of this century without efforts well beyond those captured in …
UC Riverside No. 2 systemwide for renewable energy
Fiat Lux - By Sandra Baltazar Martínez, UC Riverside
UC Riverside is serious about its zero carbon footprint goal. For the past month UC Riverside has been installing more than 9,600 solar panels in two campus parking lots, a 4.3 megawatt project that puts
What roadkill is costing California
Fiat Lux - By Kat Kerlin, UC Davis
Quick summary• Vehicle collisions with animals cost California $276 million in 2016, up 20 percent • Fencing along the most severe roads would pay for itself within 2 years or less • San Francisco Bay
Cyborg bacteria turn into tiny, zero-waste solar panels
Fiat Lux - By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley
To help humans capture more of the sun’s energy than natural photosynthesis can, UC Berkeley scientists have taught bacteria to cover themselves in tiny, highly efficient solar panels to produce useful
UC campuses among the greenest in the country
Fiat Lux - UC Newsroom
Sierra 2017 "Cool School" Rankings• UC Irvine — 8 • UC Santa Cruz — 23 • UC Berkeley — 27 • UC Davis — 32 • UC Riverside — 35 • UC Santa Barbara — 49 • UC Merced — 50 Seven UCs are among the top 50 most
Why Ecology Needs Natural History
americanscientist.org
In March 1908 a remarkable partnership was forged that would affect the practice and teaching of field biology for more than a century. Annie Montague …
'Cyborg' bacteria deliver green fuel source from sunlight
BBC News - Matt McGrath
Scientists have created bacteria covered in tiny semiconductors that generate a potential fuel source from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. The so-called "cyborg" bugs produce acetic acid, a chemical
New Study Shows How Well We Beat Back Climate Change in the 80s
Popular Mechanics - By David Grossman
With the current discussion over climate change ranging from dystopian to denial, it's worth remembering that humanity can take actions that over time resolve tough environmental problems. A new study
Bitten by the bug, renowned researcher retires from University of California
eastbaytimes.com - Tammerlin Drummond
BERKELEY — When Vernard Lewis was a little boy, he hunted grasshoppers and fed them to harvester ants. When he brought home bugs he’d trapped in …
How electric vehicles could take a bite out of the oil market
Fiat Lux - By Amy Myers Jaffe and Lewis Fulton, UC Davis via The Conversation
When will cars powered by gas-guzzling internal combustion engines become obsolete? Not as soon as it seems, even with the latest automotive news out of Europe. First, Volvo announced it would begin to
Lake Tahoe
Professors swim for science across Tahoe
Fiat Lux - By Dateline Staff, UC Davis
How to donateGifts made in either of these two ways will go to the Tahoe Environmental Research Center:Use the “Giving” link on the TERC website (please designate your gift “In Honor of Jennifer Teerlink,”
Why your tuna could have 36 times more pollutants than others
Fiat Lux - By Robert Monroe, UC San Diego
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego found levels of persistent organic pollutants as much as 36 times higher in the muscle tissue of yellowfin
UCLA study helps Californians save electricity — and money — this summer
Fiat Lux - By UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, UCLA
Electricity demand fluctuates each day, and consumers who want to unplug during peak times to save money and help the environment now have a new tool at their disposal. Chai Energy, a partner of the UCLA
Study finds that storage prices are falling faster than PV and wind technologies
pv-magazine.com - Emiliano Bellini
Energy storage projects may bring the cost per kWh of a lithium-ion battery down from $10,000/kWh in the early 1990’s to $100/kWh in 2019, according …
Elephant seals recognize vocal rhythms to avoid bullies
pbs.org - Teresa Carey
We recognize friends on the phone by just their voice. Rhythm, inflection and tone clue us in to who is on the other end of the line. Humans are not …
How do we break our addiction to plastic?
Fiat Lux
More than 8.3 billion metric tons (9.1 billion tons). That’s the amount of plastic humans have created since the large-scale production of synthetic materials began in the early 1950s. It’s enough to the
How a (nearly) zero-carbon conference can be a better conference
Fiat Lux - By Andy Murdock, UC Newsroom
A conference wrapped up recently at UC Santa Barbara, but this was not a typical academic conference. There was no mess to clean up at the end: no coffee-stained tablecloths and muffin crumbs. The attendees
Oldest university-based organic research and education facility turns 50
Fiat Lux - By Jennifer McNulty, UC Santa Cruz
Middle age has a way of sneaking up on people and programs, so hearing that the experiment in organic gardening that began at UC Santa Cruz in 1967 is now the oldest university-based organic research education
California could get wetter this century
Fiat Lux - By Sean Nealon, UC Riverside
Under business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions, climate models predict California will get warmer during the rest of the century and most also predict the state will get drier. But, new research, published
Putting a price tag on nature
Fiat Lux - By Julie Cohen, UC Santa Barbara
Money may not grow on trees, but trees themselves and all that they provide have a dollar value nonetheless. At least, that’s the view of those seeking to quantify the myriad ways humankind benefits from
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University of California
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/7132108-181/close-to-home-science-and