A new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper authored by Ursula Jongebloed, graduate student in UW Atmospheric Sciences, Becky Alexander, PCC Director and UW Professor in Atmospheric Sciences, and colleagues challenges previous work suggesting that North Atlantic primary productivity is declining. Because certain phytoplankton emit dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which reacts in the air to form methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and sulfate, MSA has been used as a proxy for phytoplankton primary productivity in the past.
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The Undergraduate Cohort: Back and Bigger Than Ever
As we enter the Program on Climate Change Undergraduate Cohort‘s (UCo) third official year, it is amazing to reflect on how far we have come. What began simply as an interest survey has now blossomed into a Cohort of students dedicated to sharing, learning, and developing together into a new, informed generation of climate scientists at the University of Washington. That newfound connection was underscored at the UCo’s kickoff meeting, on 9/26, which drew over 40 attendees from across the college and university.
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 moreCommunity-engaged climate adaptation: partnering with Search and Rescue in Northwest Iñupiaq Alaska
by Charlie Hahn (Anthropology), Chase Puentes (Geography) and Ellen Koukel (Atmospheric Sciences) As part of their graduate research, Charlie, Chase, and Ellen worked collaboratively with a volunteer search and rescue group from the Iñupiaq village of Kivalina, Alaska. Their projects aim to build on the latest in climate science to produce knowledge relevant to both the academy and the community. This past winter, PCC Climate Solutions* funding allowed the students to travel to Kivalina to discuss with their collaborators proposals for better applying their research to community climate adaptation needs.
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 moreHeat Waves and Urban Flooding in Seattle: The Application of a Climate Communication Toolkit for Urban Planners in Puget Sound
Written by: Rachel Chen Rachel created a “Climate Communication Toolkit for Planners in Puget Sound, WA” as part of her thesis for the Master of Urban Planning program. To incorporate the capstone project for the UW PCC Graduate Certificate in Climate Science, she conducted a focus group to discuss her findings with planners who work throughout Puget Sound and to discuss the climate science behind heat waves and urban flooding in Seattle to demonstrate how to utilize the strategies in her Toolkit.
Read moreConnecting Chemistry and Climate Science: Empowering High School Students to Take Action
By: Kat Husiak As the urgency of climate change becomes increasingly apparent, it is essential to equip young minds with the knowledge and tools to understand and address this global crisis. In May of 2022, I responded to a request from Newport High School looking to supplement their sophomore chemistry curriculum with a guest speaker. As a result, I developed a 50 minute guest lecture to Newport High School sophomores in Bellevue, WA as part of my capstone project for the Graduate Certificate in Climate Science.
Read moreThe First Annual Spring Welcome: The Best of Both Worlds
The Program on Climate Change (PCC) community came together on the evening of Wednesday, April 5th for a Spring Welcome event, a combination of our Winter Welcome and Spring Symposium. Over 90 students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff turned out for the event to socialize, talk about research, and listen to a set of short talks by graduate students and postdoctoral scholars over refreshments.
Read morePCC Undergraduate Cohort Hosts Professional Development Workshop!
Although tourists were flocking to the Quad to see the Sakura trees in bloom on a gorgeously sunny day, members of the PCC Undergraduate Cohort were there for a different reason. During a sunny afternoon on 4/2, the UCo gathered on the third floor of Smith Hall, a room with a lovely aerial view of the cherry blossoms that certainly enhanced the atmosphere of the professional development workshop they were hosting.
Read morePCC Postdoc Channing Prend is honored as a Fulbright Scholar!
Channing Prend, a post-doctoral student in the School of Oceanography and fellow of the NOAA Climate & Global Change program, is one of three UW researchers to be honored as a Fulbright Scholar! As part of the highly prestigious award, Prend will be hosted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researching the “Regional Variability of Air-Sea-Ice Interactions in the Southern Ocean.” This will build off his work using a combination of observations, numerical models, and remote sensing to investigate the role of the ocean in the climate system, especially in the Southern Ocean, as well as his experience in communicating climate science. Congrats, Channing!
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