North Coast Representative Jared Huffman has been appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on a new Congressional committee formed to address the devastating effects of climate change. “Communities in my district on the North Coast of California are already feeling the impacts of climate change, including warming and acidifying oceans, drought, and devastating wildfires,” […]
climate change
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Officials Brace for Sea Level Rise
As sea levels inexorably rise, various public agencies have been working locally to find a defensive strategy to protect vulnerable bottomlands from inundation. This is a challenging enterprise. The cities of Arcata and Eureka, plus more than 10,000 acres of agricultural land, U.S. Highway 101, underground gas lines and electrical power lines are located in […]
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‘A Miracle Didn’t Happen’
When the California Fish and Game Commission took the unprecedented step last year of shutting down the North Coast’s 2018 red abalone season, the idea was to give the last vestige of the state’s once great fishery some time to bounce back. The decision came in the aftermath of what scientists call a “perfect storm” […]
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‘Perfect Storm’ Has North Coast Marine Ecosystem Reeling, Abalone in Crisis
Cynthia Catton’s voice catches a bit as she describes diving along the North Coast this summer to survey the region’s red abalone stock as part of annual state monitoring efforts. She had known the situation was bleak but that didn’t prepare her for what she would see. “At all of the sites we saw a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Denatured
In Nancy Tobin’s new installation, an archipelago assembled from wobbly towers of thrift-store flotsam at once defines and obscures the space. Colored light bounces off pool floaties and Barbie parts. Viewers ricochet off art as they chart their course from one assemblage island to the next. Be forewarned: You may get glitter on your shoes. […]
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COP 21: The First Week
Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion piece by Petrolia playwright David Simpson, who co-founded the Mattole Salmon Group and currently sits on its board of directors. A climate change activist, Simpson is attending the 21st United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris and will be sharing his thoughts with the Journal periodically. At the outset of the hugely […]
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King for a Day
The Journal was invited to take a New Year’s Eve float on Humboldt Bay to check out the king tides that came lapping at our shores. Some of the year’s highest tides give ocean watchers (like Humboldt Baykeeper, who provided this tour) a chance to see the coastal fallout of rising oceans. It’s a bit difficult to […]
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Huffman Drops Some Knowledge on Climate-Change Deniers
Oh (cold) snap! Our U.S. Congressman, Jared Huffman, took to the House floor today to debunk the oft-mocked Fox News canard about climate change — that global warming can’t be true because look! Snow! The Huff’s counterpoint? “The fact that it’s snowing simply means that it’s snowing.” Mic-drop speech below:
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Redwood Fatties (And Climate Change)
An ongoing, multi-year study of climate change effects on redwoods in old-growth forests has yielded results some layfolks might find surprising. Among them: Coast redwoods and giant sequoias are busting out with the big girth. “Coast redwoods in a few Northern California old-growth forests produced more wood since the 1970s than ever before in their […]
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Aldaron’s Walkabout
The South Bay gleamed dully at low tide, its exposed flats an expanse of greenish-brown mud. A watery blue, dendritic network of tidal channels, thick with eelgrass, cut across the faintly reeking ooze, as if an enormous, mythical tree made of heavy sky had fallen from above, landed deep and remained, capturing sea water and […]