articles

The black-and-white motion-triggered video looks like an outtake from a cheap horror movie: A handful of rats circle a smooth, platter-sized mound of sand. Suddenly a sea turtle hatchling appears, digging out of the nest. A rat grabs it by its head and quickly drags it off-camera. A second hatchling is snatched by another rat, […]

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act came decades too late to stop climate change impacts this century. What now? In October, Nigeria, with over 600 dead and close to 1.5 million displaced, joined a growing list of nations, including Pakistan, Thailand, and Australia, that have recently experienced unprecedented flooding linked to climate change.  Floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves, […]

BY DAVID HELVARG SEPT. 6, 2022  Two years ago the sky above my San Francisco Bay Area home was a dark pumpkin orange from wildfire smoke. The air smelled of wood fire, and gray ash covered my car. Today the bay’s waters are dark brown from a harmful algal bloom and the air smells of decay […]

New York Times By David HelvargApril 30, 2022 The bull kelp forests off Northern California are sometimes spoken of as the redwoods of the sea. And like the redwoods, these forests are in danger. In less than a decade, these otherworldly undersea landscapes, lush with life, have all but disappeared along 200 miles of coast north […]

BY DAVID HELVARG MARCH 28, 2022 The idea of ocean-based climate solutions is appealing, but the challenges are formidable. Marine Technicians Margot Buchbinder and Luis Hernandez unlock a chain-link gate at Point Molate, a natural headland on San Francisco Bay, and drive to the water’s edge along a degraded road, part of what was once a […]