Speaker: Les Guliasi, researcher in the UC Santa Cruz Sociology Department. California utilities have chosen to shut off electricity delivery to consumers by employing a “Public Safety Power Shutoff” (PSPS) strategy when gusty winds and dry conditions heighten the risk of wild fires, which pose a major threat to life, property, and public health and …

Ecosystem services, such as pollination, pest control, climate regulation, and food production are essential for human well-being, especially in urban areas where ~ 60% of the world’s population will live by 2030. While local and landscape-level habitat management practices are assumed to drive biodiversity and ecosystem services within urban areas, few have quantified the relationships …

The prevalence and social impacts of Covid-19 are taking different and more difficult forms in Watsonville compared to Santa Cruz, the two largest cities in Santa Cruz County. County and other resources are available to reduce incidence and impacts, but raise questions about how testing and public health response should be carried out to achieve …