News Archive

May 26, 2020 — Two new studies led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego highlight the significance of long-term observations for understanding ocean climate trends and events, including record-shattering marine heatwaves.

May 14, 2020 — Two University of California San Diego scientists co-edit an open-access book in which a unique mix of global religious leaders, scientists, and legislators present climate change as an immediate threat to public health, with COVID-19 serving as an example.

April 15, 2020 — Measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus have reduced the demand for fuel and slashed oil prices. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the chief long-term cause of climate warming, have slid perhaps by one-fifth, but can we expect COVID-19 to create lasting change for the planet?

February 20, 2020 — A long-feared scenario in which global warming causes Arctic permafrost to melt and release enough greenhouse gas to accelerate warming and cause catastrophe probably won’t happen. Researchers conclude that even if methane is released from permafrost, very little actually reaches the atmosphere.

January 13, 2020 — New research from the University of California San Diego finds that solar geoengineering—the intentional reflection of sunlight away from the Earth’s surface—may reduce income inequality between countries.

December 2, 2019 — UC San Diego professor and world-renowned composer Lei Liang wins the 2020 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his orchestral work that both evokes the realities of climate change and offers the enduring potential for healing.

October 31, 2018 — New research shows for the first time how the changing climate in Asia, from 5,000 to 1,000 years ago, transformed people’s ability to produce food in particular places. The computer model simulates crop failures and enables the co-authors to get at the causes of some dramatic historic and cultural changes.

September 24, 2018 — For the first time, researchers have developed a data set quantifying what the social cost of carbon—the measure of the economic harm from carbon dioxide emissions—will be for each of the globe’s nearly 200 countries, and the results are surprising.

August 27, 2018 — The State of California today released California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which details new information on the impacts of climate change and provides planning tools to support the state’s response. Among the assessment’s warnings are that two-thirds of Southern California’s beaches could completely disappear and the average area burned by wildfires could nearly double by 2100. Dan Cayan, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, served as editor-in-chief of the assessment and researchers from Scripps and California Sea Grant contributed to several of its technical and summary reports.

August 5, 2018 — New research in climate science indicates that extreme events, such as heat waves, the collapse of major ice sheets, and mass extinctions are becoming dramatically more probable. Though cuts in rising emissions appear unlikely with the stalled 2015 Paris agreement, University of California San Diego scientists argue that new developments present an opportunity to shift the politics around climate change. For the first time, scientists can make a strong case that no one is exempt from the extreme and immediate risks posed by a warming world.