Unfold UC Davis

In Kenya, climate change is threatening a way of life for pastoralists. It’s driving families deeper into poverty. When drought hits, men travel for weeks in search of water and greener pastures for their livestock herds. The women and children are left behind with no stable source of food or income. UC Davis agricultural economists are researching the pairing of two intervention programs, including a type of climate insurance policy, to keep these vulnerable populations from falling so deep into poverty that they have no way to recover.


In this episode:


Michael Carter, professor of agricultural and resource economics, and director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience at UC Davis, with research in Kenya funded by USAID.


Tom Lenaruti, Project Coordinator, BOMA Project


Nathan Jenson, economist at the International Livestock Research Institute

In California, 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation. Emissions from this sector will make it difficult to meet the state’s 2030 climate goals. There is a myriad of solutions: electric vehicles, public transportation, ride share, e-scooters and more. But people’s behaviors and habits as well as bad land-use planning make this one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. In this encore episode of Unfold, we’ll look at how we can transition to low-carbon transportation.


In this episode: 


Giovanni Circella, Director of 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program, Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis


Lew Fulton, Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program Director, Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis


Dan Sperling, founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies and California Air Resources Board Member

A quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating and electricity. In this encore episode of Unfold, we talk with Alissa Kendall, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering about our energy use. We’ll discuss renewable energy and other decarbonizing technologies and the importance of life-cycle analysis when discussing climate change solutions. 


In this episode:


Alissa Kendall, professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oceans have always done us a favor, absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But now rising greenhouse gases are warming the ocean and changing its chemistry. All of this is putting marine species and ecosystems at risk, threatening food security and the livelihoods of people along its shores. In this encore episode of Unfold, we’ll take a deep dive into the ocean to examine the effects of climate change.


In this episode:


Priya Shukla, Ph.D. student at Bodega Marine Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science and Policy


Tessa Hill, professor and oceanographer, Bodega Marine Laboratory.

Agriculture is responsible for 24 percent of our global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, UC Davis researchers say agriculture holds huge potential to be one of the biggest solutions to climate change. Carbon farming may hold the key. In this encore episode of Unfold, we examine how scientists are adding rock dust to crops to see if it can sequester carbon while also increasing yields for farmers.


In this episode:


Ben Houlton, affiliate faculty member, former director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis


Maya Almaraz, program manager in the Houlton Lab and terrestrial biochemist


Iris Holzer, graduate student in the Houlton Lab


Derek Azevedo, executive vice president, Bowles Farming Company in Los Banos, California


George Dias, Specialty Granules in Ione, California

California wildfires burned more than four million acres in 2020, destroying entire towns and killing people. As wildfires become more difficult to control and more deadly, scientists say it will only get worse. Now, wind-driven wildfires like the Santa Anas that Southern California experiences, are moving further north and striking when conditions are hotter and drier. This encore episode of Unfold examines how fire is changing California’s landscapes and how we might manage this going forward.


In this episode:
Malcolm North, UC Davis associate professor and research forest ecologist, United States Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station


Andrew Latimer professor, Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis


Derek Young, postdoctoral researcher, Andrew Latimer Lab, Department of Plant Sciences


Hugh Safford, affiliate faculty in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, United States Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region


Emma Underwood, research scientist at the Information Center for the Environment, Department of Environmental Science and Policy