News & Blog
Announcing 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 moreGraubard Fellowship supports high resolution mapping of Sea Surface Temperature anomalies
by Naomi Wharton The ocean can store approximately 1000 times more heat than the atmosphere. As a result, where and when energy is released from the ocean to the atmosphere can have significant consequences for weather and climate patterns. Sea surface temperature (SST) is a key indicator of air-sea processes that transfer energy between the ocean and atmosphere across many spatial and temporal scales.
Read moreRoles of Uncultured Microbes in the Nitrogen Cycle of Oxygen Deficient Zones
by Jordan Winter, UW Oceanography Graduate Student Oxygen deficient zones (ODZs) are areas of the ocean with sluggish circulation that result in anoxic water columns hundreds of meters thick. These regions harbor many unique microbes and are expanding in depth and extent due to climate change. A common energy strategy for ODZ microbes is denitrification, which is the multi-step process of reducing nitrate to nitrogen gas.
Read moreAll (Undergraduates) Deserve A Climate Education
As Earth’s atmosphere, land, and oceans heat and host increasing amounts of fossil carbon, humanity struggles with one of the biggest challenges of our time, anthropogenic climate change. This struggle is ever more apparent at every level of society. How we address this challenge will determine our future as well as that of many species on the planet. Yet, according to the Yale Climate Opinion Survey results of 2023, over 60% of us in the U.S.
Read moreA Shifting Snowpack Links Climate Change with Wildlife Habitat Selection in the Northeast Cascades
by Ben Sullender, UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, PCC Graubard Graduate Fellow Climate change is rapidly reshaping what winter looks like in the Pacific Northwest. In maritime climates like western Washington, much of the seasonal snowpack accumulates in temperatures near freezing, so even a slight increase in temperature could switch winter precipitation from snow to rain. Colder, higher elevations, on the other hand, might maintain or even gain more snow as we get more precipitation in the winter.
Read moreFrom Knowledge to Power: The PCC Could Lead Climate Action - Here's Why it Must
By Brett Anton In the last few weeks of my UW education, I was struck by something one of my professors left me with. “If this is how scared the scientists are…” he said, and then just trailed off. It was not a joyful sentence to finish, but the professor, a member of the ESS department here at UW, had a point.
Read moreThe Program on Climate Change presents: Climate Justice in Your Classroom - a new, justice-centered educational resource
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly devastating, they will also become increasingly inequitable. Already, much of the burden of climate change is felt by people and nations that were low historical emitters while extreme historical emitters avoid the direst consequences. Thus, it is vital that we implement justice and equity into our strategies to understand, mitigate, and adapt to climate change.
Read moreImproving park access and health co-benefits in Tacoma using a “Green Schoolyards” approach
By Nolan Kitts Who doesn’t love a good park? Especially in urban areas, public green spaces give us opportunities to move around outside, find some quiet, and enjoy a more natural setting. Researchers have established many benefits of urban park access, from increasing physical activity to improving mental health. With a changing climate, urban parks have become even more critical. Park trees can decrease the impact of “urban heat islands” through evapotranspiration and providing shade.
Read moreTackling climate change denial, one stage at a time
By Raven Capone Benko “Climate change is happening, there’s no disagreement there. I just don’t think it’s going to be as bad as all the scientists say. I mean, look at the last fifty years since scientists started making catastrophic claims about climate change… nothing has happened.” In my sister’s living room over cups of tea and the remnants of our white elephant gift exchange, her partner – an engineer for an oil refinery – and I were in a deep discussion about green energy, environmental ethics, and of course, the legitimacy of climate change.
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