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Strong winds blow sand at a wind farm in the Coachella Valley on May 6th, 2019, in Palm Springs, California. California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment found that temperatures of the inland deserts of Southern California, including the Coachella Valley, are expected to continue climbing. According to the report, average daily highs could increase as much as 14 degrees this century if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Viewfinder: Temperatures Continue Climbing in California’s Inland Deserts

According to California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment, average daily highs in the state's inland deserts could increase as much as 14 degrees this century if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Pacific Standard Staff

Jessie Byrd, manager for the Pima County Native Plant Nursery in Tucson, holds a Ariocarpus fissuratus, a rare plant that was confiscated from someone crossing the border.

Environment

Inside the Fight Against the Growing Cactus Black Market

The booming succulent market is creating wide-scale theft of cacti from national parks. Can microchip tracking solve the problem?

Annette McGivney

A desert smoke tree is illuminated by half-moon light in the Trilobite Wilderness region of Mojave Trails National Monument near Essex, California.

Environment

Could Machine Learning Be the Key to Better Plant Conservation?

A multi-institutional research team used the power of open-access databases to predict the conservation status of more than 150,000 plants.

Sue Palminteri

Young leaders rally in Albuquerque in support of the Frack Off Chaco Movement.

Environment

In the Desert Southwest, Young Leaders Are Reimagining What a Climate Conference Can Be

A dispatch from the fourth annual youth-led Uplift Climate Conference in New Mexico.

Brooke Larsen

Environment

The Solar Revolution That Wasn’t

Concentrated solar plants are a relatively new technology that has the potential to provide hundreds of thousands of homes with clean energy. So why hasn't it caught on?

Ani Ucar

Environment

Greening the Desert? Not So Fast!

On The 25th anniversary of the book "Cadillac Desert," we look at the work of an earlier Cassandra of Western water shortages, explorer John Wesley Powell.

Arnie Cooper

Environment

Cataviña and the Water-Collecting Cacti

A lush desert — there is such a thing — teaches the value of water management in an almost waterless environment.

Kristian Beadle

Economics

The Next Market Crunch: Water

To stave off water crises created by climate change, we need new systems that manage water, energy and ecosystems together. Here's why.

Peter Friederici