News From and About Earth System Science

In addition to frequent updates on facebook and twitter, ESS faculty, staff, grad students and alumni are often the subject of more in-depth stories.

  • Atmospheric Chemistry

    Top 10 college majors with the lowest unemployment rates

    College students, take note: There are at least six fields of study whose graduates are virtually 100 percent employed right now. That's right--certain majors, such as pharmacology, produce graduates who face a zero percent unemployment rate.

    That's not bad considering last month's joblessness rate for people with a college degree or higher was 4.4 percent.

    Nov 8, 2011
  • Visualizing Respect for Groundwater

    Visualizing Respect for Groundwater

    Like Rodney Dangerfield, groundwater gets no respect. So says Michael ‘Aquadoc’  Campana. Groundwater is being depleted at an unsustainable rate and since many people don’t know where their water comes from they’re not aware that this is a problem. Visualizing.org wants to change that with its latest data visualization contest, called HeadsUP.

    Nov 4, 2011
  • Cicerone (NYT Green Blog)

    Q. and A.: The Quest of the Earth Scientist

    Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, was back in his old haunt this week, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Earth System Science, which he founded. He later served as the university’s chancellor. Dr.

    Sep 16, 2011
  • Cicerone - Looking Back

    They had the whole world in their hands

    Founding chair Ralph Cicerone recalls the roots of UCI’s Earth system science department

     

    Sep 12, 2011
  • Last Call at the Oasis (Movie Poster)

    Variety Reviews: Last Call at the Oasis
    Whether the glass is half full or half empty isn't the point of the effervescent "Last Call at the Oasis": It's whether there'll be anything in the glass at all. A sobering but somehow upbeat examination of the looming catastrophic global water shortage, Jessica Yu's latest docu can be seen as the final installment in Participant Media's Crisis Quartet -- "An Inconvenient Truth" (climate), "Food, Inc." (agriculture), "Waiting for Superman" (education) and now, a look at the Earth's most precious, and perhaps most endangered, commodity. The film should fare as well as its predecessors: Everyone, after all, gets thirsty.

    A Participant Media presentation. (International sales: Submarine, New York.) Produced by Elise Pearlstein, Jessica Yu. Executive producers, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Carol Baum, David Helpern. Directed by Jessica Yu.

    With: Erin Brockovich, Peter Gleick, Jay Familgietti, Robert Glennon, Tyrone Hayes, Paul Rozin, Jack Black.

    Sep 10, 2011
  • Global Fire Trend

    Texas Burns But What's the Global Fire Trend?

    Wildfires that have destroyed more than a thousand homes and threaten thousands more continue to rage in central Texas. Meteorologists point out that drought and an influx of wind from Tropical Storm Lee have fanned the flames and fueled the rash of fires, the most severe Texas has experienced in recent memory. 

    Sep 7, 2011
  • Wastewater recycling can increase emissions

    Wastewater recycling actually increases greenhouse gas emissions

     

    Aug 29, 2011
  • Map Directions (NYTimes)

    Tracking the Movement of Ice Across Antarctica

    A new map of Antarctica illustrates for the first time how ice moves across the continent. The map’s creators believe it may be a crucial tool in helping researchers understand how a warming climate is changing the continent.

    The creation of the digital map was supported by NASA and combines data gathered from 2007 to 2009 by satellites belonging to the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

    Aug 22, 2011
  • Antarctica - Daily Mail Image

    Scientists map huge rivers of Antarctic ice flowing into the seas in climate change 'breakthrough'

    Huge rivers of ice that flow into the sea from deep within Antarctica have been mapped for the first time.

    The breakthrough could be crucial in tracking future sea levels as part of the battle against climate change, according to the scientists who undertook the study.

    A team led by Professor Eric Rignot from the University of California at Irvine produced a 'jigsaw' of the glacial formations using data from European, Japanese and Canadian satellites.

    Aug 19, 2011
  • Rignot Antarctic Map

    First Map of Antartica’s Moving Ice

    Ice moves. It flows in streams and channels. It creeps and compresses and deforms. We see it best perhaps in glaciers birthing icebergs, frozen rivers emptying into the ocean. Now, for the first time ever, we can see just how much ice moves across the entire Antarctic continent, and the view offers up a few big surprises. This new knowledge could help scientists understand how ice is changing now and how it will change as our climate continues to warm in the future. It will help scientists predict how much sea levels will rise as ice melts in coming decades.

    Aug 19, 2011