2+ mon, 5+ day ago (467+ words) The number of whales getting tangled up in fishing nets, line, buoys and other miscellaneous rope off the coasts of the United States hit a record high in 2024, with California taking the ignominious lead. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, there were 95 confirmed entangled whales in U.S. waters last year. Eighty-seven were live animals, while reports for eight came in after the animals had died. On average, 71 whales are reported entangled each year. There were 64 in 2023. More than 70% of the reports were from the coastal waters off California, Alaska, Hawaii and Massachusetts. California accounted for 25% in 2024, most in the San Francisco and Monterey bay areas. Humpback whales were hardest hit, accounting for 77 of the cases. Other whale species include North Pacific gray whales, the North Atlantic right whale, minke, sperm, fin and bowhead whales. Entanglements are just one of…...

6+ mon, 5+ day ago (733+ words) Hayley Smith is an environment reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she covers the many ways climate change is reshaping life in California, including drought, floods, wildfires and deadly heat. Yosemite National Park's eastern entrance will reopen just in time for Memorial Day, officials announced this week. Tioga Road " a popular scenic section of Highway 120 " has been closed due to ice and snow since November. It will reopen to all traffic at 8 a.m. Monday, according to the National Park Service. The road is typically closed each year between November and late May or early June due to wintry conditions, while all other park entrances remain open year-round. The 45-mile road closure extends from the Tuolumne Grove east of Crane Flat to the Tioga Pass Entrance Station. Preparing the road for reopening is a significant undertaking that includes plowing through multiple…...

9+ mon, 2+ week ago (510+ words) The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection this week released new fire hazard severity zone maps for dozens of inland Northern California cities and towns " the first updates to maps for these areas in more than a decade. The new maps add more than 377,000 acres into zones where increased fire safety regulations will apply. The release launches a two-month rollout of new fire hazard maps that will culminate on March 24 with maps for Southern California. Local responsibility areas (proposed) The updates are expected to increase the extent of "very high" and "high" hazard zone areas " where most increased fire safety regulations apply " by some 1.4 million acres. In this first release, all but one of the cities Cal Fire mapped saw an increase in acres zoned. Out of the 35 cities included, Truckee in Nevada County and Chico in Butte County…...

10+ mon, 3+ week ago (496+ words) The destructive winds and devastating fires that are sweeping through the Los Angeles area this week drove many, understandably, to their phones seeking information " and seeking to help. In the wake of the Mountain and Sandy fires, here are ways to avoid inhaling smoke particles that can cause heart and lung disease. On Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a relatively routine public request for off-duty firefighters to call a staffing line to report their availability to help combat the blazes. And this is where one strain of misinformation began. Firefighters continue to fight the Palisades fire, which has burned more than 17,200 acres, and the Eaton fire, which has charred at least 10,600 acres in the Pasadena and Altadena areas. All kinds of people " surely with the best of intentions " began reposting the LAFD's call for off-duty members to…...

4+ mon, 1+ week ago (511+ words) The result isn't more abundance; it's cronyism masquerading as climate policy. It wasn't perfect, but it was a real attempt to inject discipline into a policy that had run off the rails. Senators, however, had other plans and diluted the reform. New carveouts were added. Key provisions were extended, and the effective phaseout was punted years into the future. The good news is that even this watered-down reform is expected to cut green subsidies by about $500 billion over 10 years. That's no small feat, especially in a town where "cutting" usually means "slightly slowing the growth of programs we already can't afford." It's doubly impressive given that the forces fighting to maintain the subsidies outspent reformers by orders of magnitude. Now, we're hearing the usual refrain " "But fossil fuels are subsidized too!" " as evidence of the outrage and unfairness that it…...

7+ mon, 2+ week ago (416+ words) A 50-foot gray whale washed ashore in Huntington Beach on Friday. Nonprofit workers say the young adult female showed no signs of physical injury. A dead 50-foot gray whale washed ashore in Huntington Beach on Friday, according to officials with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. The cause of death of the young adult female is not yet known, said Glenn Gray, chief executive of the Laguna Beach-based nonprofit. Employees of the center performed a necropsy of the body on Saturday morning. The whale had no signs of physical injury, Gray said. Such marks are typically seen if a whale is struck by a boat, bitten by a shark or entangled in fishing gear. Gray whales are dying in large numbers, again. Samples from the body have been sent to a lab for testing. "It may take a couple weeks," he…...

11+ mon, 2+ week ago (569+ words) Southern California air quality regulators are reneging on their promise to enact long-delayed rules to curb health-damaging and planet-warming pollution from the ports of L.A. and Long Beach by the end of this year. In doing nothing once again, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has failed to do its only job, cowering in the face of opposition from organized labor and powerful business interests that have worked together on a campaign to kill the proposal meant to clean up the region's biggest single source of smog-forming pollution. It is clear the opposition has succeeded. The air-quality agency and its 13-member governing board has backed down, breaking the pledge of its chair, Vanessa Delgado, who in May committed to adopting a rule by the end of the year. Instead, the district is now floating a far weaker alternative: Requiring the…...

3+ mon, 4+ week ago (598+ words) After an investigation from The Times found L.A. city had failed to publicly comply with a 2019 law requiring it to analyze the capacity, safety and viability of its evacuation routes, Councilmember Traci Park filed a motion that would force the city to comply. "The Palisades fire underscored just how vulnerable our hillside communities remain," the motion states. The fire " along with Tuesday's Tsunami Advisory " "reaffirms the urgent need to comply with [the law] and update the City's emergency planning to reflect current realities." Former state legislator Marc Levine wrote the 2019 law, Assembly Bill 747, after hearing the horrific scenes of gridlock on the streets of Paradise, Calif., over the radio during the 2018 Camp fire. The law requires local governments to include these evacuation analyses in the the safety element of their general plans, which serve as the blueprint for long-term development of…...

8+ mon, 3+ week ago (552+ words) WASHINGTON'California's lawmakers urged their leaders in Congress on Friday to continue funding federal aid in the wake of the L.A. fires, amid a congressional budget battle and questions about possible conditions being imposed by the Trump administration. Their letter signed by all 54 House and Senate members marks the latest step in a months-long political fight to ensure California keeps getting the money it needs to clean up the destruction and rebuild after the devastating wildfires in January. "The road to full recovery is long, and while the response from the federal government has been incredibly helpful to date, additional funding and resources will be needed," read the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). The request for funds comes as Congress…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (1176+ words) BEL'M, Brazil'The expansive halls of the Amazon's newly built climate summit hub echoed with the hum of air conditioners and the footsteps of delegates from around the world scientists, diplomats, Indigenous leaders and energy executives, all converging for two frenetic weeks of negotiations. Then Gov. Gavin Newsom rounded the corner, flanked by staff and security. They moved in tandem through the corridors on Tuesday as media swarmed and cellphone cameras rose into the air. "Hero!" one woman shouted. "Stay safe we need you," another attendee said. Others didn't hide their confusion at who the man with slicked-back graying hair causing such a commotion was. "I'm here because I don't want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference," Newsom said when he reached a packed news conference on his first day at the United Nations climate…...