News & Blog

124 posts in Blog Post
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Blog Post, Gifts

Exploring Climate Data and Technology with Frontline Communities

Western Washington has experienced several climate-related events over the last few years, such as the 2021 heatwave and flooding this past December. However, experiences of these events are not evenly distributed across the population. Frontline communities, including people of color and low-income communities, experience climate change and environmental hazards first and worst. Community organizations like Front and Centered, a coalition of community of color-led groups across Washington state that work towards a just transition, environmental justice, and climate justice, work to make sure frontline communities are equipped to advocate for their needs and build power. 

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Announcements, Blog Post, Fellowships, Gifts

2025/2026 Graubard Fellowship Awards

Graduate fellowship awards to students working on climate are a part of the PCC’s identity.  The first fellowships were awarded in 2002 to incoming graduate students in the natural sciences.  Twenty years later, in 2022, a gift from William Calvin and Katherine Graubard brought new energy to the program with the establishment of the Graubard Fellowship.  We can now also support students working on climate-related problems in departments across campus who are in need of support to complete their PhDs. 

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Blog Post, GCeCS Capstone

Hope in Practice: My Climate Story

My climate story started when I was seven or eight. We had a huge snowfall—feet of snow. Our neighbor’s white dog got lost in it, and playing outside with my family was the best thing I knew (never fear, we found the dog hiding under our other neighbor’s basement fridge). Over the next decade, snow became less frequent. Sometimes just a dusting. 

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Blog Post, Events, Outreach, PGraSC

Building Climate Community One Coffee Chat at a Time

This past spring, P-GraSC launched a Coffee Chat matching program for graduate students and postdocs to help foster one-on-one conversations, build a stronger sense of PCC community, and encourage climate-focused collaboration across the natural and social sciences.  Despite shared interests in broader climate-related questions, many grad students and postdocs rarely have opportunities for informal conversations outside the academic and social circles of their department. 

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Blog Post, Undergraduate Cohort

UCo: Heading Outside!

This quarter the PCC Undergraduate Cohort, UCo, spent time building community, connections with nature, and professional portfolios. As spring sprung, we headed outside on Earth Day with Beautify UDub for a campus clean-up. Joining this event helped build our greater campus presence and connection with undergraduate students and environmental student organizations. We worked together to reduce litter and joined in conversation about the Earth and climate.  

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Blog Post, Gifts, Outreach, Research

What’s Wet Doesn’t Burn: Reflections on Wildfire Planning in River and Forest Management

When asked to picture a wildfire, most people imagine a forest—trees burning, smoke billowing, and flames casting shadows. Images of wildfire are becoming more familiar as large fires make headlines across the US. But the effects of fire extend beyond forests. Streams and rivers flowing through burned areas are also impacted by wildfire and can carry those impacts to downstream communities and ecosystems. 

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Blog Post, Gifts, Outreach

Salinity, Diesel, and Bears, Oh My! -- Fostering Collaborations in a Remote Subarctic Community

Through the Climate Solutions Fund, I was able fly to Churchill, Manitoba for outreach with the local school and field sampling. It was during the sea-ice algae spring bloom, a time of high productivity crucial to local ecosystems. Churchill is a small subarctic community on Hudson Bay with polar bears, belugas, and the northern lights that can only be accessed by airplane or train. 

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Blog Post, GCeCS Capstone, Outreach

Communicating the climate benefits through economics: A case study of presenting biochar to the farming community

by Hemalatha (Hema) Velappan Historically, climate communications mostly relied on strategies postulated by the knowledge-deficit model, which assumes that sharing the scientific and technical aspects of the problem will prompt people to be concerned about the issue and modify their behavior. While this approach enhanced knowledge about the issue, it proved ineffective in motivating people to take action. Whereas messages that were focused on audiences’ immediate concerns and socio-political contexts had a much greater impact on nudging their behavior towards more climate-friendly solutions [1]. 

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Blog Post, Events

What a Warm (Winter) Welcome – A Recap of the 2026 Winter Welcome

By Elena Rheingans (New PCC Undergraduate Assistant) I reach the fisheries building after a gloomy walk through puddles that splash against my boots.  Once I enter though, I am in event mode and ready to welcome the PCC community to our event.   The 12th annual winter welcome was held on March 11th from 5-7 pm in the Fisheries Sciences building.  It was my first event with the PCC as the incoming undergraduate assistant.  

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Blog Post, Education, Gifts, People, Research

An Undergraduate Computer Science Major Engages in Interdisciplinary Research on Southern Ocean Phytoplankton Modeling

The Southern Ocean is a large part of the global carbon cycle and phytoplankton play a key role by converting CO2 to organic carbon, which can be transported to the deep ocean. Previous works examined phytoplankton presence and CO2 flux but didn’t take community species composition into account. The purpose of this research, funded by a PCC Research Acceleration award to P.I.’s Alison Gray and Hannah Joy-Warren, was to determine the relationship between phytoplankton community composition and carbon fluxes. 

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