News & Blog
Lake Forest Park, WA: Community Solar Precedent Review
As part of an ACORN project beginning in a time marked by bleakness due to COVID and lockdowns (mid-2020), representatives from Lake Forest Park’s People for Climate Action chose to prioritize hope for the future of their community and of the world. Partnering with an early-career graduate student and a representative from Seattle Public Utilities, they hoped to investigate community solar energy as an opportunity to bolster sustainability and equity and their own community.
Read moreClimate and Environmental Justice Course Development Workshop - Winter 2023-Register NOW!
The Program on Climate Change and the Program on the Environment, with additional support from the College of the Environment, are sponsoring a Climate and Environmental Justice course development workshop during winter quarter 2023. First taught in winter 2021, this year it is facilitated by Dr. Alex Turner (UW ATM S). The interactive, results-driven workshop will consist of four 1.5-2 hour meetings spread over the winter quarter.
Read moreClimate and Environmental Justice Course Development Workshop - Winter 2022
The Program on Climate Change and the Program on the Environment, with additional support from the College of the Environment, are sponsoring a Climate and Environmental Justice course development workshop during winter quarter 2022. First taught in winter 2021, this year it is co-facilitated by Dr.’s Heather Price (North Seattle College) and Alex Turner (UW ATM S). The interactive, results-driven workshop will consist of four 1.5-2 hour meetings spread over the winter quarter.
Read moreIPCC releases landmark report emphasizing the existence of and threat posed by human-driven climate change
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published its most dire assessment on climate change ever as part of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, was contributed by Working Group 1, a group of 234 authors, including PCC Executive Board Member Kyle Armour (ATM S/OCEAN) as a Contributing Author, and cites over 14,000 scientific papers.
Read moreLessons Learned: How Can We Connect Middle School Students to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification?
A collaboration between UW students and DNR using local nearshore ecosystems as examples to center a climate change curriculum. A capstone in fulfillment of the UW PCC Graduate Certificate in Climate Science. Written by: Amanda Arnold, Katie Byrnes, and Lizzy Matteri Climate change is so vast and complex, riddled with intricate interactions, making teaching it to young students daunting. Additionally, while many middle school teachers have training in biology and want to incorporate climate change and biological responses to climate change in their teaching, they often lack formal coursework in climate change.
Read moreThe PCC Presents "Climate Science for the Classroom", a new ebook
The Program on Climate Change is excited to announce the publication of a new open-access ebook, Climate Science for the Classroom. The book is a compilation of climate-science focused labs, modules, and games for middle and high school classroom, and represents the work of 17 different past and present PCC graduate students and community members. The ebook was organized and edited by Miriam Bertram and Surabhi Biyani, and is published through UW Libraries.
Read moreIntroducing ACORN Projects
We often refer to an “academic bubble” filled with researchers, professors, and students, like ourselves, who are isolated from the broader communities they inhabit. Importantly, academic research objectives don’t always align with the immediate, actionable priorities of these wider communities. While the extent to which “academic bubbles” exist can be debated, there is undoubtedly room for improvement in conducting meaningful engagement and research in partnership with communities.
Read moreLucas Vargas Zeppetello on staying one step ahead of climate skeptics
"If I could go back and rewrite the abstract of my group’s paper, I would include a sentence that points out why a feedback between surface temperatures and downwelling longwave radiation does not preclude the existence of the greenhouse effect." Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, graduate student in Atmospheric Sciences at the UW writes about his responses, both emotional and practical, to the misrepresentation of his discussion of radiation balance as published in his first research paper. "Don’t @ Me: What Happened When Climate Skeptics Misused My Work"
Read Lucas' EOS Opinion piecePCC/GCeCS Information Session
Graduate Certificate in Climate Science (GCeCS) 2019 Capstone and Outreach Opportunities December 2019 Each fall graduate students interested in learning more about the Program on Climate Change (PCC) and the Graduate Certificate in Climate Science (GCeCS) gather to introduce themselves and learn about capstone opportunities. On 7 Nov 2019 twenty-five students heard directly from three mentors, from fellow students working on capstones, from the PCC Director Becky Alexander, and from GCeCS adviser Miriam Bertram.
Read moreDoes a Few Degrees C of Global Warming Matter? or Understanding and Using Simple Climate Models, the 2019 Current Climate Change Workshop for High School Teachers, University of Washington, 18 May 2019.
By Miriam Bertram, Workshop Facilitator As global warming continues, and the resultant impacts on the biosphere become increasingly apparent, our young people are taking to the streets to demand political action. As these young people traverse the educational system, they need coursework and context for understanding and changing the future, for understanding what they are marching to achieve. To serve our youth, high school science teachers need resources for expanding their knowledge and keeping up with climate as it changes.
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