News & Blog
Earth likely to warm more than 2 degrees this century says Dr. Frierson
A recent paper published in Nature Climate Change by a group of UW researchers, including Dr. Dargan Frierson, explains just how critical climate action is. The authors use a fully statistical approach based on country-specific variables to forecast CO2 emissions and temperature change to the year 2100. The study is based on the already implemented emission mitigation policies seen today and finds that it is unlikely that the increase in global temperature will stay under the 2°C mark, and that a change between 2°C and 4.9°C globally is more likely.
Read More at UW NewsEarthGames was featured in Nature
Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Dargan Frierson, and Professor of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Josh Lawler were featured in an article in Nature about their pursuit of environmental education through video games. EarthGames recently launched a new game, Erode Runner on for iPad, iPhone, and Android phones and tablets.
Read more at NatureTeachings kids about climate change where most parents are skeptics
A partner with the PCC and the UW in the High Schools Program, Jamie Esler, was recently featured in The Washington Post. Jamie was a part of the PCC Education's Climate Science for the Classroom and has been allowing students to understand the meaning of climate change on their own terms. The course allows students to actively investigate the most current scientific research behind the nature of Earth's global climate system, and the factors influencing this system. His actions represents a greater struggle to teach climate change in high schools.
Read more at The Washington PostClimate Science on Tap!
The Climate Science on Tap panel discussed sea level rise, its causes and impacts around Puget Sound, and what is being done to prepare and respond in the future. LuAnne Thompson, Director of the UW Program on the Climate Change, was a part of the panel discussing last week.
Listen HereRefuting EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's claim
Qiang Fu (UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences), and Stephen Po-Chedley (recent grad of UW Atmos), are coauthors on the recently published paper refuting EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's claim that, "over the past two decades satellite data indicates there has been a leveling off of warming". The group instead goes back to 1979 and uses satellite data to illustrate the warming over the past 40 years.
Read more at The Washington PostEric Steig is in The New York Times
The New York Times has been doing a series on Antarctica and the signals of climate change over the past few weeks. In Part 3 of their series, they talk about the culprit for the loss of ice around West Antarctica. Some point to the strengthening of the winds, churning up more warm ocean water. however, Eric Steig, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, mentions that "we’re not sure because we don’t have enough data, for long enough, to separate signal from noise".
Read more at The New York TimesPCC alumni turned journalist
Deirdre Lockwood, who received her PhD in 2013 in Chemical Oceanography and was involved with the PCC during her time at UW is now a journalist. Her article in Chemical and Engineering News talks about the effect ocean acidification has on shellfish populations and what it means for the local oyster populations.
Read more at Chemical and Engineering NewsKnut Christianson is in Rolling Stone
Knut Christianson from the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, is featured in Rolling Stone for his work regarding Thwaites Glacier. Rolling Stone's Jeff Goodell talked to Knut about the possible collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Read more at Rolling StoneKyle Armour on climate sensitivity and global energy budgets
Kyle Armour received much praise for his most recent paper published in Nature. Armour's paper on estimates of climate sensitivity from global energy budget constraints suggest that they are in agreement with values derived from other methods and simulated by global climate models. Climate models do not exaggerate the predicted warming.
Read more at NatureGraduate Student Representative, Greg Quetin, has a new paper in the Journal of Climate
Department of Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Student and PCC Graduate Student Representative, Greg Quetin, recently published a paper in the Journal of Climate on the interaction of vegetation and global climate. The study found that the composition of ecosystems can be shaped by climate in order to take advantage of local environmental conditions. Moreover, the interaction between photosynthesis and temperature can respond to different climatological states. The combination of these two factors determines ecological-climate interaction and the pattern can provide a functional constraint for process-based models, helping to improve predictions of the global-scale response of vegetation to a changing climate.
Read more at the Journal of Climate