Climate change is often a polarizing and controversial topic. It is a heavily politicized issue that should be avoided at all costs during the infamous holiday dinner - or so I’ve been advised. And yet, somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to have an honest and open conversation about climate change with my family members last month.
From a scientific standpoint, Hawaiʻi is a unique location for climate science in the Pacific Island Region. Since climate change is already impacting island nations throughout the region, you could call them the ‘canaries in the coal mines’ that serve as a warning to other areas.
Years of Living Dangerously, a big-budget, 9-episode TV documentary, tries to communicate the seriousness of climate change through personal stories and first-hand experiences of people across the globe. To make sure they get the science right, the producers collaborate with a panel of distinguished experts. We interviewed one of them: Dr. Katherine Hayhoe from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
Most folks know that I’m not usually a huge fan of big meetings. They have great energy, but there’s so much going on that you can’t see or do everything you want to. So I have to admit that as a first time attendee to the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world, I had some mixed feelings about going.
The twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) has convened in Paris this week to agree on global solutions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The goal is to achieve a legally binding international agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The last such treaty signed 18 years ago, the Kyoto Protocol, failed to meet many of its objectives since it was not ratified by the US and other developed nations did not fulfill their commitments.
I recently joined the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) as a Biologist through the Presidential Management Fellowship program (PMF). As a master’s student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, I knew that I was interested in joining the federal government but was unsure about which agency or department would best align with my interests in applied ecology, wildlife conservation, and natural resource management.
Now that summer is a fleeting memory, a new Global Change Fellow reflects on how she came to meet her fellow Fellows!
Early August is a beautiful time to visit Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The Southeast Climate Science Center (SE CSC) 2015-2016 Global Change Fellows got to enjoy the West Virginia air while attending a Structured Decision Making (SDM) course at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC). The week-long course introduced these Global Change Fellows to the process of SDM through lecture, activities, and teamwork.
Every 10 years, State natural resource agencies review the health (or decline) of their fish, wildlife, and associated habitats. They take a proactive approach, thinking carefully about the priorities, challenges, and actions they would like to accomplish during the coming decade.
Do you live in a city or its suburbs? Probably. If not, you’re one of the few. I have either lived in the suburbs or near the heart of a city for my entire life.
Do you ever think about how plants and animals are enjoying the city life? I certainly didn’t until the past few years.