In 2019, gray whales inexplicably began to die by the scores along the Pacific coast.
By the end of the year, whale watchers and government scientists were stunned that hundreds were perishing, still with no clear cause. In San Francisco Bay, where I live, 34 had died. That was when Carolyn Cole and I set out to find answers.
Originally, we had a plan to follow the whales on their yearly migration, starting in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, where these whales appear every spring to bask and reproduce in warm, protected inlets. Then we would work our way north up the coast.
Gray whales die in record numbers — and no one knows why
latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Podcast: The mystery of the disappearing gray whales
msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Will drought and climate change feed more extremism in the West?
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This is the May 27, 2021, edition of Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
The offshore wind industry has struggled to get a toehold on the West Coast, even as projects begin to take off on the Atlantic Seaboard. Ocean breezes could play a big role in transitioning the Western electric grid off fossil fuels, especially because the region’s offshore gusts blow strong after sundown, as Anna M. Phillips, Rosanna Xia and I wrote for The Times.
Still, here was a major hitch on my mind while reporting this story. As much potential as there is in offshore wind, it’s one of the best examples of an inconvenient truth: that renewable energy facilities are often seen as terrible eyesores.