UCLA Environment

Building resilient utilities: UCLA issues report on key water and power infrastructure needs | UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation Smart meters and undergrounding power lines are among promising innovations in addressing climate and fire risks.

Our big fire innovation report with LADWP and ~100 external experts, convened and synthesized by @luskininnovation.bsky.social, @uclasustainablela.bsky.social , @uclaioes.bsky.social and a much broader UCLA team of experts is out.

innovation.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/10/07/b...

In Los Angeles, Tony Pritzker applies an engineer’s discipline to environmental philanthropy—from stormwater systems keeping runoff out of Santa Monica Bay to a global prize at UCLA supporting emerging innovators.

“Science is science—and it’s fact-based,” he told @Mongabay.com 🧬🧪 ucla.in/4pZ8sQh

Smartphone location data show park use patterns in extreme heat (Los Angeles, California, USA) Climate change, combined with the Urban Heat Island effect, will generate more frequent, intense extreme heat events. These events can induce heat str…

🔥 New Paper Alert 🔥 -- from the incomparable @ioes.ucla.edu Senior Practicum in Environmental Science with the paper led by new alums Sammy Fruman and Bethany Woo --> anonymized smartphone data show park use in extreme heat 1/ #heat #hazards #mobility #cities www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How extreme heat determines diets in rural India Extreme heat damages crops and increases the number of strongly undernourished households in terms of calories, iron, and other nutrients. While some households cope by buying food grown elsewhere, th...

🆕 How extreme heat determines diets in rural India

Today on VoxDev, Paul Stainier (@upenn.edu), Manisha Shah (@goldmanschool.bsky.social) & @alanbarreca.bsky.social (@ioes.ucla.edu) discuss how extreme heat affects health and nutrition in India: voxdev.org/topic/health...

🐘🌱🔊 From decoding software to decoding elephants: 2025 Pritzker finalist Seema Lokhandwala leads the Elephant Acoustics Project, creating early-warning systems that save lives and draw on community wisdom. "Coexistence in India is not led by ecologists and scientists alone." ucla.in/4plAlBW

As chytrid fungus wipes out frogs — 90 species lost and counting — 2025 Pritzker finalist Anthony Waddle of Macquarie University is testing ways to tip the balance back toward survival. “Many in the field have given up, viewing the problem as hopeless, but I see it differently.” ucla.in/3JP1lJz

📉 “In other words, when elephants are removed from the ecosystem, ebony populations will severely decline and may ultimately collapse,” said Thomas Smith, senior author of the study and UCLA distinguished prof.

A new #UCLA study shows how African elephant poop helps ebony trees grow, the slow-growing source of wood used for guitars and pianos 🎸 In areas where elephants are poached, researchers found nearly 70% fewer ebony saplings.

ucla.in/47NATtO

A mother and baby elephant drink water from a river in Dzhangha-Sangha National Park. Credit: Richard Rosomoff

Mind-blowing UCLA research shows that ebony trees used in guitar frets, piano keys, and other musical instruments depends on elephants. Specifically: Elephant dung.💩Beautiful article by my colleague @ahewitt.bsky.social also shows importance of continued federal funding. ucla.in/4lPSGUD 🧪

‘It burns my hands, my eyes, my lungs. But what choice do I have?’ For Denica Riadini-Flesch, hearing those words changed everything. Now a 2025 Pritzker Award finalist, she’s proving fashion can restore soil, dignity and women’s futures 🪡🧵🌱 ucla.in/3JxH9ff

2025 Pritzker Award finalists: Anthony Waddle, Denica Riadini-Flesch, Seema Lokhandwala — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA Three innovators from Australia, Indonesia and India are redefining how to protect wildlife, restore ecosystems and build equitable futures…

⚡️ UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability is proud to announce the finalists for the 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award 🙇‍♂️🌏✨ All under age 40, their work spans continents and cultures, united by a refusal to treat complex problems as inevitable.

Meet the 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #6–9 — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA These four nominees are focused on housing, conservation, fashion and public space — tackling environmental issues by redesigning how systems work at the local level…

My nominee for the Pritzker Environmental Genius Award (@ioes.ucla.edu) is founder of Elephant Acoustics Project, she uses #bioacoustics to understand India's #elephants & reduce conflict w/ ppl

Her goal:

Fewer crop losses & injuries + fewer elephants being relocated, captured or killed on roads:

What does environmental genius look like in 2025? Maybe it’s a frog sauna outside Sydney, a high-tech greenhouse in Appalachia, or a furniture studio bringing back Kenya’s mangroves 🐸 ✨ 🇰🇪

Meet the final set of nominees for the 2025 Pritzker Award 🙇‍♂️ ucla.in/3J6ZLT5

Great work by my colleagues @luskininnovation.bsky.social & CCSC @ioes.ucla.edu, projecting ongoing customer bill impacts of electrifying in LA.

(Full disclosure, I was involved)

Meet the 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #6–9 — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA These four nominees are focused on housing, conservation, fashion and public space — tackling environmental issues by redesigning how systems work at the local level…

🐘 The second set of UCLA 2025 Pritzker nominees show what happens when climate work starts with listening — to elephants, to tenants, to cotton farmers, to community.

Their work spans bioacoustics, housing law, regenerative fashion and coalition-building.

Meet the 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award candidates #1–5 — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA These five early-career leaders are creating climate solutions in areas and communities often left out of conventional planning…

⚡️🌎 Meet the first five candidates for the 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award.

They’re working in places where infrastructure is unstable and communities are underserved — across forests, clinics, code camps, and river basins. #UCLA #PritzkerAward ucla.in/4lVBdej

Announcing the 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award nominees — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA Thirteen nominees. Five continents. One common denominator: a new blueprint for environmental leadership.

13 nominees. 5 continents. 1 blueprint 🌎

Announcing the 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award nominees—rising leaders using science, tech, and design to tackle climate challenges. One will receive $100,000 to scale their impact.

Whaling Records Can Help Improve Estimates of Sea Ice Extent - Eos The locations of humpback whale catches in the early 20th century indicate that most climate models overestimate the historic extent of sea ice in the Southern Ocean.

What can whaling records from the 1930s tell us about sea ice extents a century later? A lot, it turns out.

New research by Marcello Vichi (Univ. of Cape Town) & coauthors; input from Marilyn Raphael @ioes.ucla.edu + Ryan Fogt (Ohio Univ.). Story by @shapersyris.bsky.social. eos.org/articles/wha...

Featured in L.A. Times—Edith de Guzman, PhD ’23, reimagines L.A. climate inequities through art at Descanso Gardens — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA Featured in this week’s Los Angeles Times Climate and Environment coverage, Edith de Guzman, PhD ‘23, brings climate and heat inequities to the spotlight. This summer at Descano Gardens…

Featured in L.A. Times: Edith de Guzman, PhD ’23, brings shade inequity—and climate justice—to the spotlight at Descanso Gardens 🎨 ✨ Her exhibition explores who gets cooling shade in a warming L.A. ucla.in/4lvhWQH

Flood deaths are rising in the U.S., fueled by heavier rainfall In the wake of last week’s Texas floods that killed more than 100 people, a Post analysis found the number of U.S. freshwater flood fatalities has ticked up in recent years.

It’s important that “people get information through channels they trust and see,” UCLA water researcher Greg Pierce tells the Washington Post. He calls for better flood warning systems as U.S. flood deaths rise. “We should invest in that, and we’re not right now.” @gregspierce.bsky.social

UCLA IoES Magazine Ranked #2 in California for Sustainability Coverage — Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) Magazine has been ranked #2 on Feedspot’s list of the Top 30 California Sustainability Blogs. The list recognizes the most influential…

🌎 When research leads, readers follow. IoES Magazine is now ranked the #2 Sustainability Blog in California by Feedspot — selected from thousands of sites for its trusted coverage of science, policy, culture and climate.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

Here is where Waymo has suspended service in San Francisco The robotaxi company has instituted a no-go zone amid of large-scale protests against ICE.

After multiple Waymo vehicles were set on fire during protests, the company pulled service across L.A. and much of S.F. UCLA professor Rajit Gadh told @sfstandard.com if torchings continue, companies may add sensors and cooling systems to protect their vehicles.

Local predictions of climate change are hazy. But cities need answers fast Scientists are figuring out where “downscaled” climate models struggle—and how they can be improved

As cities race to adapt to climate change, they're demanding hyperlocal forecasts. But UCLA climate sciensist Alex Hall tells @Science.org the science behind these projections is far from settled: “It really is a mess right now.”

Watts community leaders outline longstanding environmental health concerns during 'toxic tour' Watts community leaders highlighted longstanding environmental health concerns during what one activist called a "toxic tour."

Watts residents led officials on a "toxic tour" to expose decades of pollution. UCLA loES PhD candidate Danielle Hoague, a researcher with the #BetterWattsInitiative, tells ABC7: "What's at stake is people's health,” with illegal dumping and contamination still impacting communities.

Researchers need public's help understanding long-term health impacts of LA wildfires

What are the long-term health effects of the LA Wildfires? UCLA researchers are working to find out—with help from the public.

All LA residents are encouraged to join the #UCLAWildfireRegistry, a database of participants that will support research on physical and mental health impacts.

New assessment calls for stronger standards in forest carbon credit market Scientists find that most forest carbon credit protocols fall short of ensuring real climate benefits, raising concerns about the reliability of a fast-growing tool in global emissions reduction…

The carbon offset market could grow to $1 trillion — or collapse under its own weight.

New research from leading scientists at UCLA, the Clean Air Task Force and Boston University shows why forest carbon credits need stronger standards to deliver real climate benefits.

Marilyn Raphael elected to National Academy of Sciences One of the highest honors a scientist can receive, Raphael and three other UCLA faculty join an elite group of Nobel laureates and internationally recognized scholars…

👏 Marilyn Raphael, professor of geography and former IoES director, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences—one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. She and 3 other UCLA faculty join a community of elite scholars and Nobel laureates.

What cities can learn from Los Angeles’s effort to build a fairer energy system A closer look at the decisions, data and trade-offs behind LA’s plan to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035 — without leaving vulnerable communities behind.

What can cities learn from LA’s approach to clean energy and equity?

A new UCLA study breaks down the data, decisions and trade-offs behind LA’s plan to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035–without leaving vulnerable communities behind.

🔋 More here: www.ioes.ucla.edu/article/what...