Search Results for: Fire

Faculty by Primary Interest

Areas of Interest Climate ChangeEcologyEnergyGovernanceWaterInternational Climate Change ERG CORE David Anthoff David Anthoff is an environmental economist who studies climate change and environmental policy. He co-develops the integrated assessment model ... Continue Reading »

Summer Instructors

The Energy and Resources Group summer instructors understand the complex and interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. All have significant experience teaching and/or professional experience in the subject areas of their courses. ... Continue Reading »

Affiliated Faculty

ERG has a small core faculty but a much larger group of affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are based in other departments on campus or at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ... Continue Reading »

Awards

Student Awards ERG students have been recognized nationally and internationally for their research. Below, you can find a selection of recent awards received by ERG Masters and PhD students. CAL ... Continue Reading »

ERG’s Chelsi Sparti on How Indigenous Practices Can Inform Wildfire Prevention

November 2, 2021

ERG graduate student Chelsi Sparti has published in Cal Matters about how knowledge of indigenous practices can inform wildfire prevention.

ERG Professor Margaret Torn on the Growing Impact of Californian Wildfires

November 3, 2020

In the recent Scientific American article "California’s Mega Fires Have Arrived 30 Years Early", ERG adjunct professor Margaret Torn argued that as more people living in wildland-adjacent areas, the catastrophic impacts of wildfires only continues to grow. “We’re changing how catastrophic a fire is because we have put more properties and lives at risk... because we’re building in fire zones,” Torn stated.

Alumna Alexandra von Meier on Multi-Customer Microgrids to Combat Wildfires

October 16, 2019

Alexandra von Meier, an ERG Alumna and director in the California Institute for Energy and Environment’s Electric Grid program area, discusses how locally sourced power, compared to shutting off power, can better prevent wildfires.

Governor Newsom Appoints ERG Alum Carla Peterman to New Wildfire Recovery Commission

January 31, 2019

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has released three appointments to the new Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, which includes ERG alumna Carla Peterman (PhD ’17). Peterman served as a ... Continue Reading »

ERG’s Lara Kueppers on Climate Change and CA Wildfires

January 9, 2019

ERG Professor Lara Kueppers recently commented in Bustle on the relationship between climate change and the California wildfires.  “‘Due to climate change, she explains, ‘warm temperatures extend over a larger ... Continue Reading »

Solidarity and Survival on the Roof of the World Fire and Ice: Soot

March 25, 2015

Read the adapted excerpt in Slate of a new book by ERG alum Jonathan Mingle (MS'09).

ERG’s Bodie Cabiyo on How Innovative Use of Low-Value Wood Can Advance Carbon-Beneficial Forest Management

December 8, 2021

A new research paper exploring the potential for the innovative use of low-value wood was recently published in PNAS by Bodie Cabiyo, a PhD candidate at ERG, with corresponding author Daniel Sanchez (PhD '15). Their research supports that the innovative use of low-value wood has the ability to reduce wildfire risk, and reduce California's net emissions. (Photo by Olena Sergienko)

Equity Matters in Calculating the Social Cost of Methane Say Anthoff and Errickson

April 22, 2021

ERG assistant professor David Anthoff and alumnus Frank Errickson recently published a report on Nature finding that "by accounting for economic inequalities between countries and regions, the social cost of methane drops by almost a factor of 10 in sub-Saharan Africa and jumps by almost a factor of 10 for industrialized countries, such as the United States."

ERG Dan Kammen Addresses Texas’ Recent Electric Grid Failure

March 23, 2021

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, titled "Why the massive power outages in Texas are so much worse than California's summer blackouts," features ERG professor Dan Kammen discussing how such energy outages have highlighted a similarity between California and Texas. “What is so interesting here is that like in California — extreme weather (for us, fires) — has stressed an old, outdated and ‘not smart’ grid,” Kammen stated. “Without well-integrated solar, wind, AND energy storage our grids are vulnerable.”

ERG Alum Sasha Harris-Lovett Closely Monitors Bay Area Sewage for COVID-19

November 2, 2020

COVID Wastewater Epidemiology for the Bay Area Project (COVID-WEB) is a pop-up lab dedicated to monitoring Bay Area sewage for COVID-19, with ERG alumna Sasha Harris-Lovett as one of the several UC Berkeley scientists and researchers heavily involved with the project. The lab analyzes 30 samples each week, contributing valuable data to health officials keeping track of outbreaks in neighborhoods lacking in COVID tests and health care. "Having a regional wastewater monitoring system is like having a fire lookout on a mountaintop,” says Harris-Lovett in the Berkeley News. “We want to be able to see smoke and marshall resources to put out the fire before it becomes an inferno."

ERG Professor Dan Kammen on the Importance of Political Policies Against Climate Change

August 6, 2020

ERG Professor Dan Kammen was featured on a recent Al Jazeera article, discussing America's progress towards building a greener economy. "The 2020 election in the United States is absolutely critical, because we know on the climate side that we have very few years left to get on an innovative green energy path," Kammen stated.

ERG PhD Student Adam Hanbury-Brown Awarded NASA Research Grant

July 3, 2020

ERG PhD Student Adam Hanbury-Brown was recently awarded funding through NASA's Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) program, which is designed to support graduate student-designed and performed research projects that advance NASA's science, technology, and exploration goals.

ERG’s Lara and Kammen on Potential for Biomass Feedstock from Drought

January 23, 2020

ERG student José Daniel Lara and ERG professor Daniel Kammen, in collaboration with forest researchers in UC Berkeley's department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, recently published "Characterization of the woody biomass feedstock potential resulting from California’s drought" in Nature, Scientific Reports.

Kammen on the Increasing Normalization of Power Shutoffs on KCBS Radio

November 4, 2019

Daniel Kammen discusses how power shutoffs and evacuations may become the the new normal as climate change continues to spark deadlier wildfires year after year.

ERG Alumnus Patrick Gonzalez Speaks to Congress on Climate Change

June 27, 2019

ERG alum, Dr. Patrick Gonzalez presents scientific findings to Representative Mike Quigley and other members of the U.S. House of Representatives Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Members in the U.S. Capitol

Carbon Footprint Map by ERG Alum Chris Jones is Putting Pressure on Bay Area Cities

September 27, 2018

Earlier this month, the Global Climate Action Summit convened in San Francisco to discuss ambitious climate action targets for global emissions by 2020, setting the stage to reach net zero ... Continue Reading »

Misplaced Praise – How Kosovo Took a Step in the Wrong Direction

March 13, 2018

The U.S. government recently congratulated the government of Kosovo for signing a contract with American multi-national corporation Contour Global to build a new 500 MW coal-fired power plant. Kosovo highlights ... Continue Reading »

Kammen – Why Democrats and Republicans are Both Right on Climate

March 9, 2017

ERG professor Dan Kammen authored a guest blog post for the Scientific American on different strategies proposed by the Democratic and Republican Parties to address global warming.

ERG Alumna: Disrupting the Social-Change Industry Scholz

October 26, 2016

Alumna Astrid Scholz (PhD 2001, Energy and Resources Group) seeks to disrupt the social-change industry with Sphaera Solutions.

ERG Alumnus Peter Gleick on California’s Drought

August 25, 2016

ERG Alumnus Peter Gleick comments for News Deeply on what makes California's current drought different.

but scientists say the work’s just begun. Obama’s Clean Power Plan is finally out

August 5, 2015

ERG Professor Daniel Kammen was featured in two magazine publications regarding Obama's Clean Power Plan and the impacts it might have on the U.S. population.

BOOK: Applying Anthropology and Physics to Sustainability

March 30, 2015

New book by Dove and Kammen released this week.

Zoë Chafe leads new WHO Report

March 12, 2015

"We wanted to help policymakers and members of the general public understand that household heating with biomass is a complicated issue," says ERG PhD candidate Zoë Chafe.

Holdren Sets New Course for US Energy

March 20, 2014

President Obama's top science advisor and ERG Co-founder, John Holdren, is confident that America's next energy plan "will make a difference."