Bernie Bastien-Olvera

Interdisciplinary researcher on climate change science and economic impacts.

 Communicator, media producer, and National Geographic Explorer. 

My work explores how climate change will impact the ecosystems that provide tangible and intangible benefits to people. By modeling coupled human-natural systems and statistically analyzing empirical data, I explore mitigation and adaptation pathways that protect the diverse and unique nature contributions to society.

I am an institutional Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. I work with Kate Ricke  and researchers at the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation on representing climate-driven changes in the oceans and marine ecosystems in climate policy models. 

Selected Publications

  • Bastien-Olvera, B. A., & Moore, F. C. (2022). Climate Impacts on Natural Capital: Consequences for the Social Cost of Carbon. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 14, 515-532.
  • Bastien-Olvera, B. A., Granella, F. & Moore, F. C. (2022). Persistent effect of temperature on GDP identified from lower frequency temperature variability. Environmental Research Letters, 17(8), 084038.

  • Bastien-Olvera, B. A., & Moore, F. C. (2021). Use and non-use value of nature and the social cost of carbon. Nature Sustainability, 4(2), 101-108.

Google Scholar

CV 2023

Selected Awards, Honors & Scholarships

  • 2023 – Kinsella Memorial Prize Award
    High quality, original, multidisciplinary Ph.D. dissertation of the year.
    College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis.
  • 2022 – National Geographic Explorer
    National Geographic Society
  • 2017 – Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellowship
    Fulbright 

Media coverage

Healthy ecosystems essential to meeting Paris Agreement.

Read Full Text

Do shifts in temperature have enduring economic impacts? A “clever” trick identifying climate trends gets us one step closer to addressing this long-standing question in climate economics.
by Jenessa Duncombe September 2, 2022

Read full text

Accounting for the Unique and Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change
by Kat Kerlin September 28, 2020

Read full text

Models typically used to analyse climate–economy interactions have paradoxically ignored much of nature’s value. A new study explicitly addresses this issue and reveals feedback loops between nature and the climate system that make climate change more costly.
by Matthew Agarwala & Diane Coyle

Read full text

Creative productions and outreach

I am passionate about science communication, and I dedicate a huge part of my time to it. I am co-founder of Estudios Planeteando, a production house that creates multi-media socio-environmental storytelling projects. 

Festivals and Live Performances

TV and Films

Writing

Podcasts

CliMitologia: debunking climate change myth along with climate scientists. Host and scriptwriter. 

Planeteando de Película: Conversations about the socio-environmental problems as pictured in movies. Host and creator.  

Current Projects

Voces de la Tierra” is a guided walk tour that brings to life socio-environmental aspects of the urban landscape with climate justice lenses. This project was awarded by the Big Ideas content from UC Berkeley. 

 Climate Justice mini-series of videos written, hosted and edited by UC Davis undergrad students. 

We were awarded by the UC Davis Green Initiative Fund. I was a mentor in this project.