What Can I Do About Climate Change? Content

EPA Removal of Vehicle Emissions Limits Won’t Stop the Shift to EVs

Katherine E Kerlin — February 13, 2026 - 1:18pm

The U.S. government is in full retreat from its efforts to make vehicles more fuel-efficient, which it had been prioritizing, along with state governments, since the 1970s.

Tell Me Something Good … About Salmon

Katherine E Kerlin — January 29, 2026 - 1:22pm

For every bad thing happening in the world, there are good people trying to make things right. Sometimes they even win. That’s why I’m starting a new series on this blog called “Tell Me Something Good.”

I’m opening it up with Carson Jeffres, a UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences researcher who helped inspire the idea, simply by telling me something good. I needed to hear it. Maybe you do, too.

Julian Johnson’s Big Year of Birding

Katherine E Kerlin — January 27, 2026 - 3:48pm

Julian Johnson didn’t even consider himself a birder until a couple of years ago, but the UC Davis undergraduate student broke the Yolo County Big Year record for birding in 2025. He recorded 275 species while spending more than 1,000 hours birdwatching in the country last year. His achievement came just months after a UC Davis team broke the” Big Day” record for Yolo County.

Expedition to Antarctica: UC Davis Tracks Melting Glaciers

Katherine E Kerlin — January 23, 2026 - 1:31pm

UC Davis scientists are in Antarctica to deploy Gull, an autonomous underwater vehicle known as a glider, that will help us understand how fast one of the world’s biggest and most important glaciers — Thwaites — is melting. Thwaites Glacier and neighboring Pine Island Glacier are potential glacial flow from the West Antarctic ice sheets. If this system collapses, it could raise sea levels across the world.

Finding that Ripe Cone Sweet Spot: Looking Back to Help the Future

Katherine E Kerlin — January 21, 2026 - 10:15am

California’s wildfire seasons are becoming more intense, and the state’s public bank of seeds to help replant and reforest lands after blazes is understocked by thousands of pounds.

A new research project out of University of California, Davis, aims to help solve that problem by using decades of data from historical cone collection records to model when cones in coniferous trees from wild stands will ripen.

LA Fires: Chemicals From the Smoke Lingered Inside Homes Long After the Wildfires Were Out

Katherine E Kerlin — January 06, 2026 - 12:16pm

When wildfires began racing through the Los Angeles area on Jan. 7, 2025, the scope of the disaster caught residents by surprise. Forecasters had warned about high winds and exceptionally dry conditions, but few people expected to see smoke and fires for weeks in one of America’s largest metro areas.

2025 Arctic Report Card Released

Katherine E Kerlin — December 16, 2025 - 2:00pm

Bright orange rivers, a greening tundra, the “Atlantification” of the Arctic and record-breaking temperatures on both land and sea are among the emerging concerns highlighted in the 2025 Arctic Report Card from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.) Now in its 20th year, the peer-reviewed report includes chapters by 112 authors from 13 countries, each dedicated to monitoring changes in the Arctic.

The Carbon Dioxide Climate Debt

Katherine E Kerlin — December 04, 2025 - 2:26pm

UC Davis experts describe the human barriers and opportunities for meaningful action to reduce global emissions and the world's staggering climate debt.

How California’s State and Federal Water Projects Can Better Protect Fish

Katherine E Kerlin — November 14, 2025 - 4:32pm

At least two thirds of California's population and more than 4 million acres of California farmland rely on water delivered by the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, two of the largest multipurpose water management projects in the world.

Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions Hit Record High in 2025

Katherine E Kerlin — November 13, 2025 - 3:27pm

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise by 1.1% in 2025 – reaching a record high, according to new research by the Global Carbon Project.