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Articles on California

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This AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps team did trail maintenance and construction work in Pennsylvania in 2017. Tim Leedy/MediaNews Group's Reading Eagle via Getty Images

American Climate Corps: Biden’s new green jobs initiative delivers more promises than details

A scholar of national service programs points out that the government hasn’t spelled out what this one will cost, what its participants will earn or how it will operate.
Many of the people caught in the wildfire that swept through Paradise, Calif., in 2018 were older adults. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Wildfire risk is soaring for low-income, elderly and other vulnerable populations in California, Washington and Oregon

Alarmingly, about half the people exposed to wildfires in Washington and Oregon were those least able to afford to protect their homes, evacuate safely and recover.
The fossil deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles have well-preserved remains of many prehistoric animals that got stuck in natural asphalt seeps over the past 60,000 years. Cullen Townsend, courtesy of NHMLAC

A changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another?

New findings from the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California suggest human-caused wildfires in the region, along with a warming climate, led to the loss of most of the area’s large mammals.
Common household products such as cleaning agents can contain a wide range of harmful chemicals. gawriloff/istock via Getty Images

Body lotions, mothballs, cleaning fluids and other widely used products contain known toxic chemicals, study finds

Manufacturers don’t usually have to disclose what’s in products like shampoo and household cleaners, but a new study finds that these products can contain hazardous ingredients.
Fires are increasing in high mountain areas that rarely burned in the past. John McColgan, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service

Fire danger in the high mountains is intensifying: That’s bad news for humans, treacherous for the environment

Fires here can affect meltwater timing and water quality, worsen erosion that triggers mudslides, and much more, as two scientists explain.
California’s snowpack was more than twice the average in much of the state in early March 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Is the Western drought finally ending? That depends on where you look

Reservoirs and streams are in good shape in California and the Great Basin, but groundwater and ecosystems are another story. And then there’s the Colorado River Basin.

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