Podcast appearances and mentions of julie cart

Julie Cart covers the developing offshore wind industry for Cal Matters,

California Newsroom investigation about Cal Fire fumbles responsibilities in wildfire prevention despite a historic budget. Plus a CalMatters series on how firefighters are facing a mental health crisis following years of intensifying wildfires. Today's Guests CapRadio State Government Reporter Scott Rodd and KQED Science Reporter Danielle Venton share their investigation about how Cal Fire fumbles key responsibilities to prevent catastrophic wildfires despite a historic budget. Julie Cart, Environment Reporter with CalMatters, and Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Burrow discuss how Cal Fire firefighters are overworked and facing a mental health crisis following years of intensifying wildfires. 

Wildfire season runs almost all-year round in the West, and CalMatters.org's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julie Cart examines the compelling stories of several firefighters who give up any sense of a normal family life to help save people's lives and homes. The Morning Show with Nikki Medoro talks with Cart about the help that's needed for these human beings who have sacrificed so much. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wildfire season runs almost all-year round in the West, and CalMatters.org's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julie Cart examines the compelling stories of several firefighters who give up any sense of a normal family life to help save people's lives and homes. The Morning Show with Nikki Medoro talks with Cart about the help that's needed for these human beings who have sacrificed so much. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This special episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live on November 17, 2021 at a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly as part of our Energy Forum. Panel 3: The End of Oil? With the impacts of Climate Change looming, Gov. Newsom and the Legislature have set a goal to be carbon neutral by mid-century. Can we meet that goal, and if so, how? And, what becomes of the state's fossil fuel industry in a carbon neutral California? How will this affect those communities that may struggle to meet the costs of making the transition? Panelists: Severin Borenstein, Energy Institute at Haas; Danny Cullenward, CarbonPlan; Catherine Reheis-Boyd, Western States Petroleum Association; Alvaro Sanchez, Greenlining Institute Moderated by Julie Cart of Calmatters

Memorial Day weekend traditionally marks the opening of many campgrounds and state park facilities across California. But this year is a bit different. As the pandemic took hold, outdoor spaces were some of the few places people could safely go. What is the state of California’s State Parks following a tumultuous year of wildfire and a pandemic? CalMatters’ Julie Cart describes a recent visit to Big Basin, California’s oldest State Park, which was destroyed by wildfire in 2020. We also hear from State Parks Director Armando Quintero about what it will take to rebuild Big Basin in a sustainable and fire resilient way and how the pandemic and climate change have affected his vision for our parks.

California has set some pretty ambitious climate goals. By 2045 all energy has to come from renewable sources - solar, water and wind. Nicole talks with environment reporter Ezra David Romero about plans to potentially build 800 to 900 floating wind turbines off the coast of California. She also talks with CalMatters’ Julie Cart, who also covers the environment, about another project near the Salton Sea that could potentially help the state store its renewable energy. And, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, some California lawmakers called out for more police reform. Now, with a guilty verdict for the officer who killed him, is there enough political will to make these ideas a reality? CalMatters’ Nigel Duara steps into the co-host chair this week to talk with Nicole about some of the bills California’s Black Caucus would like to see move forward this year.

It's been a busy week in news. Australia's capital Canberra is menaced by wildfires and has declared a state of emergency. And the fast spread of the coronavirus has also led to racist comments and press coverage about Asian food and Asian-American eating habits. Sam talks about these stories with panelists Julie Cart, a reporter for CalMatters and Andrew Ti, host of the podcast Yo, Is This Racist? and writer for the ABC series Mixed-ish. Then sports writer Jemele Hill of the Atlantic reflects on basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who was killed along with his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash this past week. Sam asks how and when we should acknowledge the good and bad sides of someone's life after a sudden death.

Julie Cart by Jeff Schechtman

For those of you that are old enough, you may remember that one of the crazy ideas that came out of counterinsurgency during the Vietnam War was that we often had to destroy a village in order to save it. It was counterintuitive and maybe it was right or wrong, but it went to the heart of the broader argument that we see playing out over and over again in so many areas. In order to do better and really focus on long-term good, we have to go beyond the immediate emotional reactions and see the bigger picture. Such is the case with California’s forests. Many are overgrown, populated with millions of dead trees, and the state has neither the resources nor the manpower to deal with this. More complicating is the relationship with California’s largest landowner, the federal government, and the interface with private property. Today, the cost in terms of life, property, and environmental damage is staggering. Julie Cart, a long-time environmental reporter in California and a writer for CALmatters, has written extensively about the horrors California now faces, seemingly on an annual basis. My WhoWhatWhy.org conversation with Julie Cart:

California forests have long been a disaster waiting to happen. Forest density, antiquated forest practices, stressed and dead trees as a result of bug infestation, conflicts between state and federal government, and private property owners wanting to live close to the “wildland-urban interface” are just a few of the problems. In this week's WhoWhatWhy podcast, we talk with longtime California environmental reporter, Julie Cart, about just how bad the problem is and what is being done to prevent more death and destruction. She explains that a full 30 percent of California is forested. Of this total, 60 percent is owned by the federal government, 2 percent by the state of California, and the rest is owned either privately or by local governments. Each has a different approach to dealing with the problem. California has an estimated 129 million dead trees, an acknowledged factor in spreading wildfires, Cart says. The cost for removing a single dead tree is approximately $1,000, and the optics of cutting down trees, even dead ones, in a state with strong environmental rules make remediation even more difficult. The impact of climate change on forest fires involves a deadly feedback loop. So many of the fires are a direct result of extended drought related to climate change. But in torching so many dead trees, a severe fire season of one or two months can release enormous amounts of carbon into the air — more than that emitted by all the cars in California each year — which significantly adds to the buildup of greenhouse gases fueling climate change. Last year's fires cost over $9 billion; this year the toll will be even higher. In both dollars and lives lost. Cart points out that while Cal Fire and the US Forest Service have vast resources, so much of those resources are diverted to firefighting, leaving little time or money to do the necessary work of prevention. Cart suggests that perhaps the real solution is simply to tell people, as they do in Australia, that if they choose to live in certain areas, they cannot expect a fire truck to roll up the driveway during the next disaster. They will have to learn how to fend for themselves.

Julie Cart by Jeff Schechtman