zizroc

Good morning, California!

Air quality is currently a bit sub-par in Santa Barbara. Of course, we’re very lucky not to be closer to the fires responsible for it. We meant to go for a hike in the Santa Ynez mountains over the weekend but the trail was closed due to fire risk; I suspect because the authorities wantContinue reading “Good morning, California!”

Fires of the present and past

It’s no secret that we’ve been having some unusual weather recently throughout the western United States. I wrote previously that we should and do expect fire in California; that fire is a natural feature of the ecosystem here and there are many plants (and presumably animals) evolved to take advantage of periodic and spontaneous wildfires.Continue reading “Fires of the present and past”

Temperature volatility affected crop yields of yesterday; it does today; it likely will tomorrow

Volatility in the stock market causes alarm, why not in the climate? It certainly does when it shows up in the weather! A couple of days ago, the American public radio broadcaster, NPR, carried a report of a centimeter or so of snow on the ground in Ft. Collins, Colorado, some 48 hours after theContinue reading “Temperature volatility affected crop yields of yesterday; it does today; it likely will tomorrow”

Modeling ancient history to inform the future

I wrote this as a blog post for Nexus, IIASA’s research blog. It’s based on the paper that Glen MacDonald and I recently put out in ERL. Find the original post here. The climate of the western half of the North American continent, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coastal region, is dry byContinue reading “Modeling ancient history to inform the future”

Here we go again

Enormous wildfires are raging through expansive real estate in Napa Valley and just east of San Jose. These fires, the LNU and SCU Fire Complexes, respectively, are 2 of the 5 largest in California’s recorded history. Really, the featured graphic is necessary to do the scale any kind of justice. (As of this morning, theContinue reading “Here we go again”

Just out in ERL

We have been working on this one for quite some time. It’s very nice to see it out at last. I will update with a short blog post I’m writing for IIASA, but for the moment, the abstract follows: Abstract. The rise and decline of many complex, pre-European maize-farming cultures in the American Southwest coincidesContinue reading “Just out in ERL”

Physicists

From PhysicsWorld: “Members of the DarkSide experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy have temporarily put their hunt for dark matter on hold in an attempt to stem the deadly tide of COVID-19. The 26-strong group of physicists from Europe and North America has designed a new, stripped-down mechanical ventilator that it hopes can beContinue reading “Physicists”

You get what you vote for

Here are 2 recent (post-“inexplicable-US-failure-to-respond-to-COVID-19”) articles from The Atlantic that might be worth looking at. One claims that “It has taken a good deal longer than it should have, but Americans have now seen the con man behind the curtain” and the other that “If somebody other than Donald Trump were in the White House,Continue reading “You get what you vote for”

UCSB has decided to do classes remotely for the rest of winter quarter

Because of the coronavirus scare, the university’s chancellor just sent out an email, stating that: “Our campus will be transitioning to remote instruction for the remainder of Winter Quarter and the start of the Spring Quarter through at least the end of April. Given our campus’s transition to remote instruction and the possibility of additionalContinue reading “UCSB has decided to do classes remotely for the rest of winter quarter”

Senegal and rosewood

I’ve learnt something new from the BBC today about illicit world trade in timber. Senegalese rosewood trees are being poached and smuggled across the border to the Gambia, where they are sold on to Chinese buyers. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p0864kpw/51774704