A map on the website of Pacific Gas & Electric showing locations impacted by the blackout on Wednesday morning. The purple icons represent areas where the power was shut off preemptively.  Credit pgecurrents.com

CLICK HERE - PG&E - Outage Map

Pacific Gas & Electric is cutting electricity as a precaution against sparking wildfires in high-wind conditions.

nytimes.com - by Thomas Fuller - October 9, 2019

A deliberate power outage that spanned large parts of Northern California on Wednesday sent hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for gasoline and other essentials as strong, gusty winds and months of dry weather put the state on alert for wildfires.

The state’s largest power utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, said it had cut power to 500,000 customers soon after midnight. A second round of cuts affecting 250,000 more customers in the hills surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area had been scheduled for noon but was delayed. . . .

 . . . Once the two phases are complete, around 2.5 million people will be without electricity, according to one estimate.

Greta Thunberg addresses thousands of demonstrators in New York. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action

theguardian.com - by Sandra Laville and Jonathan Watts - September 20, 2019

Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.

In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas . . .

 . . . Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes . . . 

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days (2019)

CLICK HERE - PAPER - Increased frequency of and population exposure to extreme heat index days in the United States during the 21st century

time.com - by Jamie Ducharme - July 16, 2019

People all across the U.S. have been sweating through heat waves this summer, and new research suggests they should get used to it.

Over the next century, climate change will likely make extreme heat conditions—and their concordant health risks—much more frequent in nearly every part of the U.S., according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. By the end of the century, it says, parts of the Gulf Coast states could experience more than 120 days per year that feel like they top 100°F.

Buildings near a Safeway supermarket were destroyed in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 8 as seen in footage taken on May 22. The Camp Fire destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and claimed 85 lives.  Ellie McCutcheon for NPR

npr.org - by Kirk Siegler - May 29, 2019

. . . Current federal aid is emblematic of a bigger problem in the way we respond to natural disasters: Disaster strikes, emergency help is deployed, checks are cut, communities are rebuilt — even in high-risk places.  Many say that reactive response has to change.  Staying the current course will bankrupt the federal Treasury.  Communities need to build — and rebuild — smarter.  "Communities need to be aware of those risks when doing community planning and not build in very high hazard areas" . . .

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - FEMA - Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 Transforms Field of Emergency Management

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Union of Concerned Scientists - Underwater - Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (28 page .PDF document)

ucsusa.org - June 2018

Sea levels are rising. Tides are inching higher. High-tide floods are becoming more frequent and reaching farther inland. And hundreds of US coastal communities will soon face chronic, disruptive flooding that directly affects people's homes, lives, and properties.

Yet property values in most coastal real estate markets do not currently reflect this risk. And most homeowners, communities, and investors are not aware of the financial losses they may soon face.

This analysis looks at what's at risk for US coastal real estate from sea level rise—and the challenges and choices we face now and in the decades to come.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Outside the small village of Chicua, in the western highlands, in an area affected by extreme-weather events, Ilda Gonzales looks after her daughter.

newyorker.com - by Jonathan Blitzer - Photography by Mauricio Lima - April 3, 2019

. . . In most of the western highlands, the question is no longer whether someone will emigrate but when. “Extreme poverty may be the primary reason people leave,” Edwin Castellanos, a climate scientist at the Universidad del Valle, told me. “But climate change is intensifying all the existing factors” . . . Farming, Castellanos has said, is “a trial-and-error exercise for the modification of the conditions of sowing and harvesting times in the face of a variable environment.” Climate change is outpacing the ability of growers to adapt.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

But the definition of circular economy remains unhelpfully broad.

fastcompany.com - by Adele Peters - February 5, 2019

When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.

The service is one example of a shift to a circular economy model. Rather than just mining materials and manufacturing products that ultimately end up in landfills, companies are increasingly trying to figure out how to use resources in closed loops.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A firefighter battling the Camp fire, which became California’s deadliest in history. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

Pacific Gas and Electric, which supplies 16 million residents, is under investigation for its role in the Camp fire and others

theguardian.com - by Vivian Ho - January 14, 2019

The utility company that services more than a third of California announced on Monday it plans to file for bankruptcy by the end of the month. Several deadly wildfires believed to have been caused by the company left it with potential liabilities of at least $30bn.

The board of directors of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has determined that the move “is ultimately the only viable option to restore PG&E’s financial stability to fund ongoing operations and provide safe service to customers”, the San Francisco-based company stated in a filing at the Security and Exchange Commission.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Workers install solar panels.  Associated Press

The open letter includes a signature from a former high-level Mobil Oil executive.

CLICK HERE - Elected Officials to Protect America - Empowering lawmakers to act boldly on climate

huffingtonpost.com - by Alexander C. Kaufman - December 14, 2018

In a little over a month, the so-called Green New Deal has won endorsements from more than three dozen sitting or incoming federal lawmakers as Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) makes a high-profile bid to shift debate over climate change toward policy on the scale of the crisis. 

On Friday, the effort got a boost from 311 state and local officials.

Forty-four mayors, 63 county and state legislators and 116 city council members were among the officials from 40 states ― including some top oil and gas producers ― who signed an open letter issuing a sweeping, full-throated call for the phaseout of fossil fuels and adoption of Green New Deal-style climate policies.

AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES RELATED TO CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES - 2018 . . .

CLICK HERE - Butte County Recovers - The official website for Camp Fire response and recovery.

CLICK HERE - Butte County - Camp Fire Information

CLICK HERE - FEMA - California Wildfires (DR-4407)

CLICK HERE - FEMA - Disasters - California

CLICK HERE - FEMA - Butte County, California - Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA)

CLICK HERE - Facebook - FEMA Disaster Recovery Center - Local Assistance Centers

CLICK HERE - Butte County - Behavioral Health - Camp Fire Incident Information

A building destroyed by the Camp Fire is seen in Paradise, California, U.S., November 13, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

reuters.com - by Andrew Hay - November 17, 2018

When a “megafire” engulfed Paradise, California, officials and residents had to abandon their evacuation plans and improvise new ways to save lives, learning lessons that could help the growing number of U.S. communities at risk to wildfires.

As strong winds sent flames roaring into Paradise at 2 miles per minute, emergency personnel and locals realized their escape plans, crafted after a 2008 blaze, would not work.

“The lessons we had learned in the past kind of went out of the window due to the sheer speed and intensity of this fire,” Paradise Emergency Operations Coordinator Jim Broshears said in a phone interview.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

East Avenue Church Shelter in Chico, California, where norovirus has spread and makeshift quarantine barriers have been erected.  Photo: Cayce Clifford

Even people nearly 200 miles from the flames are suffering the consequences of the massive Camp fire.

huffingtonpost.com - by Antonia Blumberg and Lydia O’Connor - November 16, 2018

Skies so hazy that the Golden Gate Bridge looks like a shadow of itself. A fire so devastating that hundreds of people remain unaccounted for. Air so polluted that people without safety masks are trapped inside. A quarantine set up by the National Guard to limit the spread of a dangerous virus.

This is not the climactic scene of an apocalyptic horror movie, set far in the future. This is California in 2018.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

psr-la.org - November 9, 2018

THE SANTA SUSANA FIELD LABORATORY (ROCKETDYNE) BURNED IN THE WOOLSEY FIRE, THREATENING TOXIC EXPOSURES FROM CONTAMINATED DUST, SMOKE, ASH AND SOIL. THE DEPARTMENT OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL DENIES RISK THAT IT CREATED BY DELAYING THE LONG PROMISED CLEANUP.

Last night, the Woolsey fire burned the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), a former nuclear and rocket engine testing site. Footage from local television showed flames surrounding rocket test stands, and the fire’s progress through to Oak Park indicates that much of the toxic site burned.

A statement released by the California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) said that its staff, “do not believe the fire has caused any releases of hazardous materials that would pose a risk to people exposed to the smoke.” The statement failed to assuage community concerns given DTSC’s longtime pattern of misinformation about SSFL’s contamination and its repeated broken promises to clean it up.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Entire Town Destroyed by Wildfire, People Literally Ran from Flames In Paradise, CA, thousands of structures are destroyed and an entire town is devastated after a the Camp Fire exploded in size on Thursday.

weather.com - by Pam Wright - November 9, 2018

Fast-moving wildfires prompted tens of thousands of evacuations in both Northern and Southern California, including 75,000 in and around Los Angeles, sending residents fleeing for their lives on short notice.

The largest inferno, sparked Thursday morning in Northern California, prompted numerous evacuations, including several entire towns. The Butte County Sheriff's Office told the Associated Press that a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the entire town of Paradise, which is home to about 27,000 people and is north of Sacramento.

"Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed, it's that kind of devastation," said Cal Fire Capt. Scott McLean late Thursday. "The wind that was predicted came and just wiped it out."

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)