Climate Change

Subnational governments—cities, counties, and states in the U.S. and around the world—have an essential role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and implementing integrative approaches to adaption. Leading up to the Paris climate talks, California Governor Jerry Brown, in partnership with the German state of Baden-Württemberg, gathered commitments from cities and regions to take specific actions toward aggressive emissions reductions, using a multitude of best practices that have been shared across the world.

Fellow Daniel Swain's research focuses on the causes of persistent patterns in the atmosphere—like the ones that cause drought or exceptional rain in California—and how climate change might be affecting them. In his spare time, the 25-year-old Marin native runs the California Weather Blog (weatherwest.com), a must-read for weather nerds where he comments on statewide weather patterns and their big-picture causes. He’s also the one who gave the name “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” to the pattern that’s being blamed for our three years of drought.

Subnational governments—cities, counties, and states in the U.S. and around the world—have an essential role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and implementing integrative approaches to adaptation.

A Leadership Grant allowed Fellow Amber Pairis to create the Climate Science Alliance in San Diego over the past year. It now serves as an umbrella for bringing people together to leverage programs, projects, resources, and expertise to do something bigger than they could each do alone.

With an interesting research and career portfolio that blends social movements and climate change, David Ciplet joined the Environmental Studies Departmentat the University of Colorado Boulder earlier this academic year bringing with him a focus on power and inequality in climate change and global politics.

The Climate Science Alliance under Fellow Amber Pairis has won a competitive NOAA Coastal Resilience grant with its partners.

The best use of resources is to adopt a triage approach to climate change – deal with the direst circumstances first, and work from there, says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

A regional collaboration of resource agencies learned today that it will receive an $8 million grant to protect agricultural lands and ecosystems for drought and climate resiliency.

Around the world, urbanization and climate change are transforming societies and environments, and the stakes could not be higher for the poor and marginalized. The 2015 UN climate conference in Paris (COP-21) highlighted the need for coordinated action to address the profound injustice of the world’s most disadvantaged people bearing the greatest costs of climate impacts. Among those at the COP were mayors from around the world advocating for the important role of cities in these efforts.