News & Blog
In the News: Kyle Armour quoted on climate predictions in Tangle
PCC Interim Director, Kyle Armour (UW OCEAN & ATMOS), sat down with Ari Weitzman of Tangle (an independent, non-partisan media outlet) on climate predictions, the future of climate, and what scientists know and how. Grab a coffee and check out the article that brings together research, plain language, and context to address climate skepticism and the evolution of the understanding of climate change.
Read moreUCo in Review: Recapping the Year and Looking Forward to Next
As Spring Quarter comes to an end, the Program on Climate Change (PCC) Undergraduate Cohort (UCo) reflects on its year and looks forward to the next. Each year, UCo is guided by a different set of students and their unique interests in supporting the undergraduate climate science community. As new students join the team, the goals of the group change, always welcoming new ideas and energy.
Read moreAnnouncing the PNW Climate Ambassadors: Building Capacity for Public Climate Conversations
How do scientists develop confidence and experience having conversations with the general public around climate science, global and local impact, and solutions when their areas of expertise are in a disciplinary science such as oceanography or urban planning? In Fall 2024, the Program on Climate Change (PCC), and the Washington State Climate Office (WASCO), set out to create a training program that would help develop the capacity for graduate students to do just that, and to serve as a community resource on climate science and solutions.
Read moreBeyond Prediction: Building Capacity and Innovation in Adaptation Through a Participatory Evaluation
As the impacts of climate change intensify, communities across Washington are increasingly engaging in climate change adaptation planning to prepare for more frequent and severe climate impacts. Monitoring and evaluation of these plans is a crucial step to improve their efficacy and implementation, but often goes undone, as many communities struggle to assemble the resources and staff capacity evaluation requires. This leaves a critical blind spot as to whether a community’s adaptation practices are yielding the desired results.
Read moreResilience in Diversity: Climate Change and Seed Selection on Organic Farms in Western WA
Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been stewarding seeds. Traditionally bred seeds are the result of careful selections over time, the inheritors of traits selected by both environmental pressures and human desires. Seeds hold information for how to birth life anew, passed down along with the knowledge of how to care for them. They are tended into crops used for familiar meals and healing medicines.
Read moreExploring Blue Carbon: UCo Faculty Chat with Dr. Kendall Valentine
As apart of their yearly goals, the Program on Climate Change (PCC) Undergraduate Cohort (UCo) strived to connect more with members of the PCC community and their research. Acting on this, UCo hosted their first Faculty Chat on Thursday April 24th. For this undergrad-centric talk, the group welcomed Dr. Kendall Valentine, a coastal geomorphologist and an Assistant Professor in the School of Oceanography at UW.
Read moreP-GraSC Hosts Monthly Third Thursdays – An Interdisciplinary Community-Building Event
Since February, graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, staff, and faculty interested in climate change from across the university have gathered monthly for pizza and drinks. These “Third Thursday” happy hours, sponsored by the University of Washington Program on Climate Change (PCC), were the vision of members of the PCC’s Graduate Student Steering Committee (P-GraSC). “When asking ourselves what our role as P-GraSC should be within PCC, it became clear to our members that what we really need to be focusing on right now is building community within the College of the Environment and beyond for folks who are interested in furthering our understanding of climate change impacts and solutions,” says P-GraSC member Reese Barrett (School of Oceanography).
Read moreRecap of the 11th Annual Winter Welcome
On Wednesday, February 26th, the PCC community gathered for the 11th annual Winter Welcome. The evening started in the Fisheries Auditorium with introductions and updates from PCC director, Becky Alexander. We welcomed new community members and briefly learned a bit more about them. Additional updates included recognition of the 2024 Graubard Fellows and the announcement of the new Research Accelerator RFP.
Read moreCreating Experiences: UCo Undergraduate Involvement Series
The Program on Climate Change (PCC) Undergraduate Cohort (UCo) is a community driven to connect students to diversified opportunities and networks in climate science. Each year, UCo strives to host a variety of professional development events gauged toward students entering climate-centric careers. The group strives to break down barriers for careers and opportunities in climate and provide resources for personal advancement.
Read moreUnderstanding How the EIA is Measuring Noncombustible Renewables
by Cassia Cai, UW Oceanography Graduate Student The Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) has collaborated with the University of Washington’s Program on Climate Change (PCC) and its Actionable Community-Oriented Research eNgagement (ACORN) program to provide UW graduate students the opportunity to analyze key state and federal energy data. This collaboration has enabled the development of data visualizations for the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas, which I encourage you to explore. These visualizations can help regional decision-makers in planning the clean energy transition. As an ACORN fellow, I updated Atlas visualizations using energy data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In this blog, I examine the recent shift in the EIA’s approach to calculating the primary energy consumption of electricity generation from noncombustible renewables.
Full Blog in CETI newsletter