University researchers are uncovering a troubling environmental trend
By Ariana Bindman, News Features Reporter May 30, 2025
Growing a third of America’s crops and generating billions of dollars each year, California’s Central Valley is both an economic stalwart and an increasingly popular home to millions of people. But according to new research from scientists at several state universities, climate change, urban development and agricultural activities could be making an environmental problem in the region even worse, increasing health risks for the residents who live there.
When the area’s vast farmland isn’t abundant with crops, it paves the way for harmful dust storms that broadly impact human health, the economy and the environment, a recent study from Communications Earth & Environment suggests.
According to the April 2025 study, scientists uncovered a strong link between unused, or fallow, farmland and human-induced dust storms from 2008 to 2022. Researchers found that 88% of “anthropogenic dust events” are associated with this empty farmland, and unless the state invests in mitigation strategies, global warming and urban development could exacerbate them in the coming years. By 2040, 900,000 acres could become fallow in the San Joaquin Valley alone, potentially leading to “substantial” health consequences for the surrounding community.
“Dust events are a big problem, especially in the Central Valley, and have not gotten enough attention,” UC Merced professor Adeyemi Adebiyi said in a May 2025 article published by the university.
The phenomenon typically occurs in five regions of California collectively home to nearly 5 million residents: the Owens-Mono Lake area, the Mojave Desert, Sonora Desert, the Salton Trough and the San Joaquin Valley.
Other researchers throughout the state are well aware of the issue and have been monitoring the dust’s impacts.
“There is a two-way linkage between dust emission and landscape degradation, with one reinforcing the other, leading to potentially irreversible shifts in California’s dryland ecosystems,” UC Dust, a multi-university science center, says. The project, which includes professors and students from several California universities, aims to develop and provide dust mitigation strategies.
Though dust naturally occurs throughout inland California, human activity has degraded these landscapes and bolstered production over the years. And the effects are broad: The dust can negatively impact anything from cardiovascular and neurological health to traffic conditions. In 1991, for instance, one agricultural dust storm was so powerful, it caused a 164-car collision and resulted in 17 deaths in the San Joaquin Valley. Previously, in 1977, winds reached nearly 200 mph in Kern County during one of the state’s driest years on record, leading to a brutal dust storm that left five people dead and caused $34 million in damages, KVPR-FM reported. Some are so large, they’re visible from space.
Authors of the April 2025 study also say that this dust might contribute to an increased risk of respiratory illnesses throughout the state.
The dust can carry the fungal spores that cause Valley fever, a potentially deadly infection that leads to symptoms like cough, chest pain and difficulty breathing. Valley fever cases have steadily risen over recent years, setting a record last year at 12,637 cases. 2025 saw more cases in its first four months than 2024 over the same time period, according to state data. Per the recent study published in Nature, cases surged by a staggering 800% in California between 2000 and 2018.
Central California, which has the most fallowed land, is considered a “hotspot” for the illness, the April study says. Overall, “Valley fever risk increases as the amount of dust increases,” UC Merced immunology professor Katrina Hoyer said in the May 12 university article.
While a small number of costly dust source mitigation strategies have been implemented in California, it’s still not enough, the UC Dust project
“The future of dust in California is still uncertain,” Adebiyi said in the May 12 article. But “Our report suggests dust storms will likely increase.”
Ariana Bindman
News Features Reporter
Ariana Bindman is the news features reporter at SFGATE, where she has reported and written features and breaking news stories for news, local, culture, travel, sports, food and politics verticals since January 2022. Her story on abandoned cars in Oakland won a San Francisco Press Club award in 2022, and she’s been invited to speak on radio stations like NPR and KCRW. To submit tips, comments or cat videos, please reach out to her at ariana.bindman@sfgate.com.