Happy Earth Day!

Celebrating connection and community Even as we find ourselves physically distant, never has it been more evident that we are all connected. UC Berkeley has cultivated a community of leaders striving to create a more sustainable and equitable world for all using creativity, technology, and ingenuity.

Breaking news ... Cal Falcons have hatched! UC Berkeley's resident peregrine falcons, Annie and Grinnell, hatched three new chicks this past weekend.  Follow their progress with live cameras high above campus on the balcony of the Campanile. You can also catch up with fun falcon facts with a  archived Q&A from hatch day.  Almost 60 years ago, Rachel Carson's book  Silent Spring ignited an environmental movement as it highlighted the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment.  Hard hit by the impact of the pesticide DDT  on their population, once-endangered peregrine falcons are making a comeback. UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology played a key role in proving that  DDT had effects on eggshell formation.

SERC: Student Environmental Resource Center The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) at UC Berkeley cultivates a collaborative space to strengthen the collective effectiveness of the sustainability community and provides resources for students to actualize their visions of a more equitable, socially just, and resilient future. Find out more about SERC projects around campus Join SERC for Virtual Earth Week!

Green Chemistry The mission of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry is to bring about a generational transformation toward the design and use of inherently safer chemicals and materials. Embedding the principles of green chemistry into science, markets and public policy will provide the foundation for safeguarding human health and ecosystems and provide a cornerstone for a sustainable, clean energy economy. The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry Carbon Capture and Storage

Verifying Climate Treaties Dr. Inez Fung Several UC Berkeley professors contributed to a United Nations international climate change organization that is shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.  Dr Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric science and co-director of UC Berkeley's Institute of the Environment, was among more than 2,000 scientists worldwide who have conducted groundbreaking research for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common? Edith Smith bred a bluer and shinier Common Buckeye at her butterfly farm in Florida, but it took UC Berkeley graduate student Rachel Thayer to explain the physical and genetic changes underlying the butterfly’s newly acquired iridescence.

Resources for research on climate, energy, ecology and sustainability Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management Rausser College of Natural Resources Integrative Biology College of Environmental Design Energy and Resources Group UC Berkeley Reserves & Field Stations

Explore and Participate

Understanding Global Change The Understanding Global Change application allows users to experiment and build models that explain how the Earth system works. Earth is a dynamic place with many components that interact and shape our habitats. Using this interactive tool, you can create visualizations of the connections among different processes, human activities, and measurable changes, that impact our planetary systems. Developed by the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology and HHMI Biointeractive

BYOB: Be Your Own Botanist While the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden is currently closed, they want to find ways to support each other as a Garden community and stay connected. They encourage you to share either a memory about the Garden or an example of how you’re gardening from home. The more happy memories they can share, the better, and hopefully, they can help us to remember that the Garden will be there in all its glory when we return! To participate, share your photos along with a short description on social media ( Facebook ,  Twitter ,  Instagram ) with the hashtag #beyourownbotanist, #houseplanted, and tag @ucbgarden. UC Botanical Garden: House Planted

Join the City Nature Challenge! The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is an international effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. It’s a bioblitz-style competition where cities are in a contest against each other to see who can make the most observations of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s City Nature Challenge is no longer a competition. They want to embrace the collaborative aspect of the CNC this year and the healing power of nature to allow people to document their local biodiversity in whatever way they can. Learn how to create an iNaturalist account to participate from home

The 2020 City Nature Challenge takes place in 2 parts

April 24 - 27 Taking pictures of wild plants and animals

April 28 - May 3 Identifying what was found

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For more information about upcoming lectures and other events, please visit the   Science at Cal Website.  View as Webpage Thanks for your continued interest in science! Please feel free to share this with friends. Our events are always free and open to the public. Programs are subject to change without notice.

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