Climate Change

Fellow Story

Fracking moves closer to homes, schools and other sensitive sites in the Marcellus Shale region

In this study, Switzer Fellows Evan Hansen and Lara Cushing explored whether gas production has become more prevalent near where people live, work, and play, increasing the potential for human exposure to contaminants associated with drilling and natural gas extraction.
September 21, 2017
Fellow Story

Building bird-friendly communities and climate-resilient initiatives in South Carolina

Fellow Heather Hulton Van Tassel and Audubon South Carolina teamed up under this Switzer Leadership Grant to develop programs to build bird-friendly communities, and to advance climate-resilient initiatives in South Carolina that focus on native plants, community outreach and education, and community-based conservation activities.
September 12, 2017
Fellow Story

Before Hurricane Harvey, Trump canceled coastal flood protections

Hurricane Harvey has unleashed heart-breaking devastation in South Texas. But the troubling truth is that even more damage is in store in the years ahead as climate change worsens — and our federal government is now on track to be less prepared, writes Fellow Shaye Wolf.
September 4, 2017
Fellow Story

Building up to a bailout: New Department of Energy study makes up reasons to promote coal

The Department of Energy (DoE) released a study of our nation’s energy grid that attempts, but ultimately fails, to lay the groundwork for the coal industry to get a bailout, writes Fellow Kim Smaczniak.
August 31, 2017
Fellow Story

Wolf quoted on CBD vow to expose why Trump ditched flood-protection rule

With tens of thousands of people displaced and many billions of dollars in estimated damages from the impacts of Hurricane Harvey, an environmental group on Tuesday filed a formal request on Tuesday to discover why the Trump administration recently decided to lift flood zone restrictions designed to mitigate these kinds of costly disasters.
August 30, 2017
Fellow Story

Bowen advised to remove climate change language

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is asking scientists to reword their grant proposals so as to avoid mentions of “climate change” or “global warming,” Fellow Jennifer Bowen says.
August 30, 2017
Fellow Story

Hsu quoted in Scientific American on China's launch of world's biggest carbon market

As the United States reverses its climate policies, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter is in the midst of setting up a national carbon-trading system. Chinese officials are preparing to launch an emissions market later this year that will cover roughly a quarter of the country's industrial CO2. Officials and nonprofit groups from the European Union, Australia and California have been advising the Chinese on their program design. ...
August 21, 2017
Fellow Story

Andrew appointed to new California Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group

Furthering the State’s continued efforts to address the effects of climate change, California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird today announced the appointment of 14 leaders in state climate science and infrastructure design to the Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group. ... Through its deliberations, the working group will investigate:
August 21, 2017
Fellow Story

Your gas appliance is making climate change worse

Fellow Rachel Golden writes for California to achieve its goals, it must address a source of climate pollution that is largely unchecked and literally hits close to home: the buildings where we live and work. Gas-powered appliances such as space and water heaters produce massive amounts of climate-damaging pollution. In fact, gas burned for heating is responsible for nearly as much carbon pollution as all of the state’s power plants combined.
August 20, 2017
Fellow Story

Torn named 2017 American Geophysical Union Fellow

Margaret Torn, a senior scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)’s Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA), has been named by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) as a 2017 AGU Fellow. Every year, the AGU Fellows program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the Earth and space sciences. Vetted by a committee of AGU Fellows, honorees represent no more than 0.1 percent of AGU’s 60,000 members.
August 17, 2017