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Dust is a Danger to Central Valley Health and Will Likely Get Worse, Researchers Find

May 12, 2025

A dust storm rises near Owens Lake. Photo Courtesy of UC San Diego
People don't think about dust much until it's time to clean the house, but a new report by UC researchers could raise awareness of the growing threat of dust and dust storms. Dust affects everything from cardiovascular and brain health to traffic collisions and agricultural yield....

Professor’s Paper, Among Year’s Best, Shows Dramatic Effects of Mountaintop Mining on Climate

UC Merced School of Engineering Professor Elliott Campbell has co-authored a paper showing that mountaintop removal mining will dramatically accelerate the regional effects of global warming by...

UC Merced Plasma Lab Turning Leftovers into Cleaner Energy

There’s a reason the UC Merced plasma lab is isolated behind a locking fence near the entrance to campus. There’s some serious heat being produced down there. Engineering professors Gerardo Diaz,...

Report: Central Valley Makes Modest Environmental Improvements

California’s Central Valley environment is getting healthier, but not fast enough. Its air quality is still among the worst in the nation, according to a report released today.  The Sierra Nevada...

Researchers Spend Summer Working on Projects Near and Far

From the caves of Belize to laboratories in Japan, UC Merced faculty members and students are abroad conducting research this summer across the globe. Though the semester ended in mid-May, the campus...

Park Leaders Collaborate, Learn at UC Merced Institute

At a time when Californians are dismayed about closures of state parks, and protected lands around the globe are under increasing stress from reduced government resources, an innovative institute is...

Study Shows Sugarcane Ethanol Production Causes Air Pollution

The burning of sugarcane fields prior to harvest for ethanol production can create air pollution that detracts from the biofuel’s overall sustainability, according to research published recently by a...

Cap-and-Trade Trumps Carbon Taxes for Clean Tech Adoption

A cap-and-trade system is more likely than a carbon tax system to trigger the adoption of clean energy technologies, according to a study by Professor Yihsu Chen at the University of California, ...

Study: Urban Rail Reduces Carbon Monoxide Air Pollution

The opening of a major urban rail system in Taiwan caused a meaningful reduction in air pollution, according to a forthcoming study by two professors at the University of California, Merced. “Despite...

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