One year after devastating fires, the North Bay is grappling with how and where to rebuild.

This week corporate and civic leaders from around the world will gather in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit.

The effort was spearheaded by Gov. Jerry Brown to move the fight against global warming beyond the national commitments made in Paris nearly three years ago.

"Look, it's up to you and it's up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization," says Brown in a promotional video for the summit.

It is likely to be Brown's last big climate event before he leaves office next year, and it comes at a time when many scientists agree that time is running out for a major counteroffensive against global warming, which Brown has repeatedly called an "existential threat."

A new, long-term art and science project at the University of California Santa Cruz tests possible scenarios for what gardens might look like 50 years from now as regional temperatures continue to rise.

Unprecedented smoke pollution across the West is creating public health risks and undermining decades of air quality gains.

A new breed of smoke-chasing scientists is finding important clues to fire behavior in the smoke plumes from western wildfires.

For a century, California has harnessed its water with concrete, building dams and reservoirs on an epic scale.

Now, as the state prepares to hand out $2.7 billion for new water storage projects, it looks as though that era of dam-building might be ending.

During the height of the California's 5-year drought, state voters approved new funding for water storage as part of Proposition 1. This week, the California Water Commission will allocate those funds to the eight projects that have qualified after a lengthy analysis.

Some projects are classic dams, but several won’t get the windfall they’d been hoping for. Instead, next-generation projects are in the running, like using the state's vast network of natural underground aquifers for water storage.

That’s sparked a fierce debate over how California can get more water.

California wildfires can be less catastrophic if we deliberately burn dry grasses and brush ahead of time. Plus, there's less overall pollution.

It will most likely be weeks before the County Fire west of Sacramento is completely extinguished. By Friday it had consumed nearly 140 square miles -- an area larger than Las Vegas.

Firefighters say it was a vicious cycle of weather conditions, terrain and vegetation that made it one of the fastest-growing fires in recent memory. But there was something else at work: a relatively new challenge confronting fire crews.

Scientists have noted that nighttime temperatures -- overnight lows, in particular -- are rising at a faster rate than daytime highs.

Wolves, bears and mountain lions (oh my!) are some of the animals settling into a major new expansion of the Oakland Zoo. The zoo says its “California Trail” project is pushing the envelope for animal welfare and conservation. But whether zoos should even keep large predators remains controversial because of their need to roam and hunt. Reporter Sarah Craig takes us to meet the new arrivals.

The season of summer blockbusters is in full swing. From the rollicking space adventure of "Solo," to the universe-spanning "Avengers: Infinity War," characters are dodging blasters, collecting stones of power, and falling in love as their world hangs in peril.

It's a lot of popcorn, and whole lot of fun. It's also a chance to lose yourself in new imaginary worlds. Sometimes what you see on screen can become inspiration for real life.

"The number of present-day scientists who might point to a character like Spock as a point of inspiration that got them interested in science is many," says Rick Loverd, program director of the Science & Entertainment Exchange, a project of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It's our job here at the Exchange to try to facilitate as many of those moments as possible for the next generation of kids."

The service is free and works best, Loverd says, when a researcher connects with a storyteller early on, while the project is still being envisioned.

"While we're happy to help at anytime," Loverd says, "we're most excited by those projects where a screenwriter calls us up and says, 'Hey, I just had an idea. It involves time travel and I'd love to talk to a scientist.'"

Loverd helped "Black Panther" movie makers conceive the city of Wakanda, for example, finding architects, city planners and anthropologists to contribute to a document the crew used as a reference for the history, culture and layout of Wakanda.

Lovered recently spoke with KQED Science editor Danielle Venton about what science can offer to Hollywood.