After two years, the PCC Winter Welcome finally made its in-person return on March 1st, 2022! In fact, this was the first large-scale in-person event for many community members in years, hopefully signifying the beginning of a trend towards the revitalization of face-to-face interactions as we continue working to overcome the crisis posed by COVID-19. With around 70 climate-minded scientists, educators, students, and staff in attendance from across the UW and beyond joining us in the Fisheries Sciences Building, the PCC community truly came together to celebrate everything the PCC and its members have achieved during the past year.
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PCC Undergraduate Cohort: Inspiring Climate Hope
On Thursday, February 24th, the PCC Undergraduate Cohort held its Winter Quarter meeting, focusing on sharing and discussing stories of climate hope. We are constantly inundated with discouraging news surrounding the state of the environment and the future of climate change, and while it is important to remember that the climate crisis is certainly a crisis, it is not one without moments of hope, success, and inspiration.
Read moreNew Method Reveals the Unparalleled Extent of Today's Global Warming
Researchers at the University of Arizona have recreated the last 24,000 years of Earth’s climate, dating back to the last ice age, using a method developed by co-author Gregory Hakim, professor in UW’s Atmospheric Sciences Department. Hakim’s strategy is a form of data assimilation and involves combining the strengths of both observational data from paleoclimate proxies and computer models of climate to best reconstruct past temperatures.
Read morePCC Undergraduate Cohort: Finding Research Opportunities
The PCC Undergraduate Cohort hosted its first official event on November 18, 2021! The event aimed to inform climate-minded undergraduates about why they should get involved with research here at the UW, how to look for open positions, and how to apply for a research position once one is found. There was both a seminar-style presentation and a Q & A panel with current College of the Environment undergraduates who have gotten research positions in the past, providing lots of practical advice to the over two dozen interested undergrads who attended!
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 moreCan “scrollytelling” effectively communicate the link between climate science and fishery disaster impacts?
Creating a dynamic webpage to convey the cascading impacts of climate change on the U.S. West Coast Dungeness crab fishery. A capstone in fulfillment of the UW PCC Graduate Certificate in Climate Science. Written by: Katy Bland, M.M.A. 2021 (SMEA) On the U.S. west coast, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have become frequent over the last two decades. To the average person on the west coast, a bloom may mean that razor clams or Dungeness crabs are missing from the grocery, but to fishers, seafood processors, and coastal communities, HABs may mean that fisheries are delayed and livelihoods are affected.
Read moreAhoy! Glacier Ahead: An Oceanographer's Journey to the Edge of the Ice Recording
Ahoy! Glacier Ahead: An Oceanographer’s Journey to the Edge of the Ice. We know not everyone was able to join us in person for our Walker Ammes Lecture this past week, so we wanted to be sure to share the recording with you. You can watch the lecture recording on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/uwpubliclecture. This recording will be available for the next two weeks.
Read morePCC Undergrad Cohort Kickoff Meeting
On 29 September 2021, the PCC hosted its first in-person undergraduate cohort meeting. We welcomed new undergrads, answered questions concerning the PCC, and discussed the future of the cohort. In a program like PCC that is grad student dominated, the undergrad cohort can be a place for undergrads to steer their own proverbial ship and create events and belong to a community of others interested in climate science.
Read moreUpcoming Event: Walker-Ames Public Lecture with Fiamma Straneo on 10/19
On Tuesday, October 19th, at 7:30 P.M., Professor Fiamma Straneo, co-Director of the Polar Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and UW Oceanography alumni will be giving a public lecture in 120 Kane Hall, here at the UW! Her talk, “Ahoy! Glacier ahead: an oceanographer’s journey to the edge of the ice,” is part of the Walker-Ames Lecture Series, and will detail her quest to overcome the obstacles preventing the full understanding of how ice sheets respond to warming climates by utilizing “a collaborative, team science effort which spans across the natural sciences and engineering and includes local, indigenous knowledge.” Straneo’s research, which involved everything from helicopters to snow mobiles, brought her to the edge of glaciers, and in the end, enabled the development of improved climate models, and will be a crucial tool in the collaborative effort to understand our changing seas.
Read moreA look at the PCC 20th Anniversary Celebration and Strategic Plan Release Party
On September 15th the PCC hosted our 20th Anniversary/Strategic plan release party at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Director Becky Alexander (ATM S) introduced the strategic plan which will be implemented over the next five years, and discussed the goals and priorities for the PCC during this time. This was followed by Former Director Jim Murray (OCN) as he looked back on the history of the PCC, the growth that has been made over the last 20 years, and his hopes for the future for the program.
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