Environmental Policy & Law

Through this Switzer Leadership Grant, Lauren Richter contributed as a key member of the Silent Spring Institute PFAS research team. PFAS are a class of extremely persistent synthetic chemicals common in nonstick, stain-resistant, and waterproof consumer products and widely found in drinking water of millions of Americans. Lauren led community workshops on PFAS at regional and national conferences, investigated the public costs of PFAS drinking water contamination on Cape Cod, and provided expert testimony at hearings on PFAS bills before state legislative committees in Rhode Island.

Dr. Katalyn (Kate) Voss, who grew up as an active member of the Surfrider Foundation in southern California, has always been interested in grass-roots organization and advocacy around environmental issues. Now as an AGU Congressional Sciece Fellow, Voss is excited to have arrived at the nexus of science, society and politics. “Maybe this is the geographer in me coming out,” says Voss, “since we’re trained to think across scales of space and time, I see this coming year working on the Hill as a perfect convergence of all these different spatial scales of policy and science.”

A landmark multinational agreement protecting Antarctica’s Ross Sea offers valuable lessons for similar global conservation pacts in the future, according to a new analysis coauthored by a CU Boulder researcher. The Ross Sea region Marine Protection Area, which was adopted by the international community in October 2016 after more than five years of negotiations, preserves vital biodiversity in the Southern Ocean and has been praised for being the world’s largest marine protected area.