A volunteer with the Pacific Beach Coalition picking up trash near Pacifica Esplanade Beach last year.Credit…Justin Sullivan/Getty Images They are in your gut. They are in the ocean. They are even floating through the air in the most remote regions of the West. Microplastics — fragments of broken-down plastic no larger than a fraction of an inch — […]

Despite some wet weather last fall, warm and dry conditions have settled in and are expected to continue through spring and beyond, according to a new assessment. By Henry Fountain Feb. 17, 2022 Dry conditions across the West that have dashed hopes for a respite from relentless drought are expected to continue across the region […]

The Biden administration is restoring the stateʼs power to set its own limits on tailpipe pollution and is largely adopting the stateʼs rules regarding heavy trucks. WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is preparing strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks, the first time tailpipe standards have been tightened […]

ALBUQUERQUE — The megadrought in the American Southwest has become so severe that it’s now the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, scientists said Monday, and climate change is largely responsible. The drought, which began in 2000 and has reduced water supplies, devastated farmers and ranchers and helped fuel wildfires […]

For anyone tracking the state of California’s drought, the past four months have delivered an emotional whiplash. October brought flooding and atmospheric rivers. November was unusually parched. December broke rainfall records, while January clocked in as the driest ever for large swaths of the state. The wild swings in precipitation mean that much of the water gains […]

In the final three months of 2021, hope arrived in California in the form of rain. Record-breaking downpours nourished the parched land. The state’s snowpack, a major source of water, reached a staggering 160 percent of its expected level. If the rains continued through the rest of the winter, experts advised, California’s severe drought could soon […]

For Californians still clinging to the myth that we’re not in the midst of a severe drought, a brutal reality awaits. With a dry winter projected for much of the state, California officials are considering fines of up to $500 a day for overwatering yards, hosing down driveways and other water-wasting actions. The state’s water board could impose […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The rugged Lost Coast is about to become less forbidding. A conservation group on Thursday said it planned to purchase a scenic 5-mile (8-kilometer) stretch of the Northern California coastline from a lumber company to protect it from logging and eventually open it up to the public. Save the Redwoods League […]

The following answers to questions posed by the California Chamber of Commerce are from Paula Estévez, general manager of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Chile.    AmCham Chile Please tell us a bit about the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile, services you provide and activities. The Chilean-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Chile) […]