Climate Change

Schimel, along with co-principal investigators Patricia Holden, a professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, and former EEMB postdoctoral researcher Sean Schaeffer, now an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, will be studying the physical processes that influence carbon sequestration in soil, including the access of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) to carbon, and how they use it. Read the full story

Sad tales of our failures in society to be adaptable, remarkable stories of the intricate ways in which natural organisms have survived and thrived for billions of years on an unpredictable planet, and hopeful examples of how all sorts of people, organizations, corporations and bureaucracies have learned to be adaptable.

On this Switzer Network News report, we learn about the intersection between global climate change and agriculture, why current "solutions" are inadequate and where we need to go next globally.

On my first major research cruise, the ship was hit by a hurricane. On the second, the weather was even worse. In one particularly nasty storm, I remember standing braced on the ship’s bridge late at night, watching bolts of lightning light up the world. Each one revealed waves taller than the ship extending to the horizon in every direction. We bobbed haplessly among them. At a time like that, it’s hard not to feel philosophical about the power of nature.

Tim Greiner of Pure Strategies talked about how supplier scorecards with questions about energy can help companies track energy consumption and energy performance as energy reduction metrics.

If you want to know what climate change will bring to the Earth’s aridlands, look to the North American Southwest. Better yet, talk to landscape ecologist Craig Allen, who has been working to understand and conserve New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains for 30-plus years, and who is featured in A Great Aridness, William deBuys’ well-researched new book on the region’s ongoing transformation. Read the full review

To see how thoroughly the concept of ecosystem services — the economic analysis of the natural world’s intersection with human endeavors — is embedded in climate change research, check out this forecast from a group led by researchers at Duke University and the Environmental Defense Fund.

Ecosystem services play a crucial role in sustaining human well-being and economic viability. People benefit substantially from the delivery of ecosystem services, for which substitutes usually are costly or unavailable. Climate change will substantially alter or eliminate certain ecosystem services in the future. To better understand the consequences of climate change and to develop effective means of adapting to them, it is critical that we improve our understanding of the links between climate, ecosystem service production, and the economy.

“The two go together in an overall plan, and that overall plan is for the University to support students, faculty and staff to be purchasing better hybrid or electric vehicles,” said Harold Glasser, Executive Director of the Office of Sustainability. Read the story