Climate Change

Fellow Sarah Myhre is a woman, a scientist, and a climate advocate. Are these strengths in a climate crisis?, asked a recent profile of her on Grist. “I think you can be both rigorous and objective and be human at the same time,” Myhre says. “And I have come to a place where I’m no longer willing to divorce my humanity from the science that I have participated in and am stewarding.”

From the Los Angeles Times: Heat waves will grow more severe and persistent, shortening the lives of thousands of Californians. Wildfires will burn more of the state’s forests. The ocean will rise higher and faster, exposing California to billions in damage along the coast. ...

Fellow Kimberley Miner has published a new article in Nature. A screening-level approach to quantifying risk from glacial release of organochlorine pollutants in the Alaskan Arctic Abstract

Fellow Martha Matsuoka co-authored the chapter "Working Together to Clean Up Freight Transportation" in the new report from the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Strategies for Health Justice: Lessons from the Field.

Dozens of people who live near oil and gas wells pleaded with the Trump administration Wednesday [Nov 14 2018] not to roll back rules for methane pollution, while industry representatives said the changes should go further. The Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing in Denver on the administration’s plans to loosen regulations imposed by the Obama administration in 2016. The rules require energy companies to step up the detection and elimination of methane leaks at well sites and other oil and gas facilities.

Scientists and environmental advocates are beginning to pay more attention to another area that is critical to protecting the climate: forests and other natural ecosystems, writes Fellow John J. Berger.

Editor's note: The Climate Science Alliance was founded and is led by Fellow Amber Pairis. The Switzer Foundation provided foundational funding to create CSA with a Leadership Grant.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing over $25 million in 26 projects to advance the cognitive and physical capabilities of workers in the context of human-technology interactions. These new awards will address critical social, technical, educational and economic needs in the workplace. The awards were issued under the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF), one of 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments announced by NSF in 2016.

NCA4, Vol II, Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, released November 2018, assesses a range of potential climate change-related impacts, with an aim to help decision makers better identify risks that could be avoided or reduced. The assessment follows Vol I, the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), which was released in November 2017.