Hallways busy with COVID-19 patients have become temporary patient holding areas in overcrowded hospitals.
Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
States and hospitals are starting to declare 'crisis standards of care' as the pandemic floods their ERs. The orders have consequences – both good and bad, as a medical ethicist explains.
The sequoias that live on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California are the largest trees in the world by volume.
Erin Donalson/EyeEm via Getty Images
Not having enough to eat is a major public health concern, not only because it causes hunger and distress, but also because it’s linked to poor nutrition and unstable diet patterns.
In this August 2020 photo, travellers request an Uber ride at Los Angeles International Airport.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Proposition 22 keeps workers for app-based companies like Uber and Lyft classified as independent contractors, but it also reveals deeper problems with contemporary labour markets.
Flames approach houses during the Blue Ridge Fire on Oct. 27, 2020 in Chino Hills, California.
David McNew/Getty Images
California was thought to be an exception, a place where oil field operations and tectonic faults apparently coexisted without much problem. Not any more.
Proposition 22 reverses a 2019 state law.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Workers say they love the freedom of platforms like Uber and TaskRabbit but find it hard to earn a livable wage. Cooperatives that give worker-owners a voice in how they are run offer a solution.
Electric utilities will often cut off power to prevent equipment from starting wildfires during hot, windy weather.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Jeanie Chin, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
In an era of climate change and extreme weather, a microgrid — a self-sufficient, energy-generating distribution and control system — puts communities on the path to self-reliance.
Debris in Paradise, California, after the Camp Fire, Nov. 17, 2018.
Senior Airman Crystal Housman/U.S. Air National Guard
Relying on incarcerated workers in emergencies such as the wildfires ravaging parts of the US is a cheap alternative for states. But what protections are there for prisoners?
It’s a … fire!
Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; photo by milorad kravic/iStock via Getty Images
The US has a long history of forced sterilization campaigns that were driven by the bogus 'science' of eugenics, racism and sexism.
The 2018 Camp Fire north of Sacramento burned everything in its path: cars, power lines, and buildings – and contaminated local drinking water.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Buildings aren't the only things at risk in wildfires. Recent disasters in California have left local water system contaminated with toxic chemicals afterward, slowing return and recovery.
Reliance on public transit and front-line jobs puts low-income Californians at a higher risk of coming in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Statues of the Spanish missionary Junípero Serra have been toppled by protesters in LA, San Francisco and Sacramento. Californians are questioning whether Serra was a saint or a colonizer – or both.
To some Americans, the figures on Mount Rushmore are patriotic leaders; to others, they’re colonizers.
AP Photo/Stephen Groves
For some viewers, President Trump's July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore represented love of country. Others saw it very differently.
Protesters rally to have Colorado’s then-incoming governor put an up-to-nine-month moratorium on oil and gas development.
Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Millions of dollars are spent every election by corporations that want to influence state regulations and policies, and that's likely to continue in the upcoming election.
Wildfire Specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension; Adjunct Professor Bren School of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara
Director, California Institute for Water Resources and Strategic Initiative Leader for the Water Initiative, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Adjunct Assistant Professor and a founder of the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles