In an article in the Colorado Sun on moving the electrical grid to renewable energy, AirUCI faculty Steve Davis is quoted as a member of the research team that examined the challenges of moving Colorado to 100% renewable energy. The issues of stability and baseload generation could potentially be filled by other green technologies to supplement wind and solar power, such as hydropower or biogas, but "If you go over about 80% [renewable energy] you need to overbuild your generation or build massive storage," Steve said. Read the article
News
Here's the latest news from AirUCI — our events, our people, our science.
2018
Thursday, November 15, 2018
An article in The Washington Post quotes AirUCI faculty Ralph Delfino on the effect the autumn, 2018 fires in California have had on regional air quality. People older than 65 and children younger than 4 are particularly vulnerable to smoke, he said. “When you grow older, just like your ability to fight off infection goes down, the ability to mount an antioxidant defense decreases, too.” Read the article
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
As a renowned "expert" on such diverse topics as the science behind Star Trek, Santa Claus, and superpowers, AirUCI faculty Mike Dennin is a frequent contributor to TV programs and and articles about such things. He's also co-host of Fascinating Fights, which is now in season 2. In their December 2018 edition, Mike was asked by The Atlantic magazine to name the most underrated superhero. Mike's answer: Aquaman.
Read the article
Monday, November 12, 2018
AirUCI heartily welcomes Prof. Claudia Czimczik of UCI's Department of Earth System Science as our newest faculty member! Her research aims at understanding the impacts of climate change, alterations in natural disturbance frequencies (i.e. fire), and changes in land use and management (i.e. urbanization) on the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems. Her research seeks to comprehend and predict how human activities will impact the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems in the future and how changing terrestrial ecosystems will feedback to the climate system. A major focus of these activities is on high-latitude ecosystems, i.e. arctic tundra and boreal forests.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
AirUCI faculty Michael Prather is quoted in an article on Yahoo News which considers the evidence that earth's carbon dioxide levels may be the highest in 15 million years. Direct evidence (such as ice core samples) and indirect evidence (such as the chemical makeup of ancient plankton or fossilized plants and marine life) are both considered as good scientific documentation and together point to this time frame. Read the article
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
AirUCI faculty Manabu Shiraiwa has received the Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award by the Health Effects Institute. It comes with a three-year research grant that will allow him to investigate “Formation of Reactive Oxygen Species by Organic Aerosols and Transition Metals in Epithelial Lining Fluid”. Congratulations, Manabu!
View the award announcement
Monday, October 15, 2018
An article in AP News co-authored by AirUCI faculty Steve Davis has drawn national attention, stating that the increasing bouts of extreme heat waves and drought will hurt production of barley, a key beer ingredient, in the future. Losses of barley yield can be as much as 17 percent, an international group of researchers estimated. That means beer prices on average would double or more, even adjusting for inflation and that beer, along with chocolate, coffee, and wine among other items, will be scarcer and costlier in the future. The report also appeared on the Good Morning America web site, and Steve tweeted: "Not sure what to make of the fact that in one day our paper on climate and beer has garnered considerably more attention than any of my previous work on energy transitions or even air pollution deaths." It was even featured on the October 17th Daily Show!
Three articles on different sites give somewhat different details about the study:
Read the article
Read the Wall Street Journal article
Read the UCI article
Read the NPR article with dissent from the beer industry
Friday, October 5, 2018
AirUCI faculty Michael Prather, participating expert on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, tells us that the IPCC has now completed the plenary session in Incheon, Korea that revises and approves the Summary for Policy Makers for this Special Report, called IPCC-48. This Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR15) is quite compelling according to Michael. The description of climate impacts expected at 1.5C is clear and detailed and quite worrisome as one puts together a global picture. The difference between 1.5 and 2.0C are noted and distinct. The results here are far more concrete and compelling than the last 5th Assessment Report (2013-2014). Even if 1.5C is unrealistic, it provides an apocalyptic view of our near term future. It's listed on Amazon as a 'good read'.
IPCC released the final Summary for Policy Makers on Saturday morning (Korean time). ENB reporting has a lot of information on how the final report was achieved (by compromise).
Friday, September 21, 2018
AirUCI co-Director Barbara Finlayson-Pitts is quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times on the fact that Southern California went for the entire summer of 2018 without a day of clean air, the longest streak in decades. One suspected cause is hotter weather from global warming, which is not accounted for in pollution reduction plans under the Clean Air Act. "This is one example of the close ties between air pollution and climate change," said Barb. Read the article
Friday, September 21, 2018
AirUCI faculty Manabu Shiraiwa participated in the organization of the "Air Pollution and its Biological Effects" workshop that was held at the 2018 Tsukuba Global Science Week (TGSW) conference in Tsukuba, Japan. Tsukuba and Irvine are sister cities which were founded at approximately the same time about 50 years ago. As part of TGSW 2018, additional AirUCI faculty (Alex Guenther, Sergey Nizkorodov, Manabu Shiraiwa, and Jim Smith) delivered lectures on various aspects of atmospheric sciences.
