News

A Wonderful 2024 Winter Welcome

This year’s annual Winter Welcome was held on Wednesday, March 6th beginning at 5pm in the Fisheries Science Building. We were excited to have all PCC Directors, past and present, in attendance. Don’t know who they are?  Look to Jim Murray, Chris Bretherton, LuAnne Thompson, Cecilia Bitz and Becky Alexander. We are also very thankful to have such a wonderful turnout from our PCC community, from board members, faculty, and researchers, to grad students, undergrads, and even some alumni. 

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Outcomes of our PCC Community Survey

The Program on Climate Change represents a combination of University of Washington members. We all come together with an interest in climate change from faculty, staff, and researchers to grad students, undergrads, and alumni. We form a group focused on accelerating climate involvement, education, and research but we also form a community. To get to know and connect with our community members further, we sent out a survey in February and March 2024, ahead of our Winter Welcome. 

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Accelerating Progress in Climate Science: Research and Graduate Student Funding leverage the framework built by the Program on Climate Change

The Program on Climate Change maintains a unique framework of intense cross-disciplinary collaboration that advances research and education in climate science, building knowledge, actions and solutions to address the climate crisis. New gift funds established by generous donors are providing new professors, post-doctoral scholars, and students the opportunity to leverage the PCC framework to pursue their ideas, making new connections among the UW climate community.  

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Pathways to Climate Careers: The Undergraduate Cohort Career Panel

Climate Sciences is a growing field seeing expansion in both educational and career pathways. This growth is seen within UW as more and more students partake in climate change courses, programs, and research. As education in environmental and climate sciences expands, knowing where to take a climate education beyond college is important. To address this, UCo, The PCC’s Undergraduate Cohort, hosted the “Careers in Climate Panel.” The panel, hosted on the evening of Tuesday, February 13th, featured professionals currently working in climate-focused careers, including UW and PCC alumni. 

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A Shifting Snowpack Links Climate Change with Wildlife Habitat Selection in the Northeast Cascades

by Ben Sullender, UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, PCC Graubard Graduate Fellow Climate change is rapidly reshaping what winter looks like in the Pacific Northwest. In maritime climates like western Washington, much of the seasonal snowpack accumulates in temperatures near freezing, so even a slight increase in temperature could switch winter precipitation from snow to rain. Colder, higher elevations, on the other hand, might maintain or even gain more snow as we get more precipitation in the winter. 

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Becky Alexander, PCC Director, giving the Future Horizons in Climate Science lecture at AGU next week

Becky Alexander, professor of atmospheric sciences, and director of the UW Program on Climate Change, was awarded the AGU Future Horizons in Climate Science-Turco Lectureship for 2023.  Her lecture, “The role of short-lived climate forcing agents in past and future climate change” is scheduled for next Wed (Dec. 13, 2023) at the AGU’s fall meeting.  Get there early to get a seat! 

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Forecasting the spatial extent of marine heatwaves

by Jacob Cohen, UW Oceanography, Recipient of a PCC Graubard Graduate Fellowship The ocean has absorbed 90% of recent warming associated with anthropogenic climate change; as a result, extreme ocean heat events, known as marine heatwaves (MHWs), are becoming more frequent and more intense. These extreme events can have detrimental impacts on marine ecosystems as well as coastal industries. Accurate MHW forecasts will allow local decision makers and industries to respond to and plan for these events. 

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Can ecological forestry improve public health outcomes? The Graubard Fellowship supports a case study in the Central Sierra

by Claire Schollaert As wildfires become more frequent and severe due to climate change and postcolonial fire management practices, there is growing consensus among the forest management community that prescribed burning should be used on the landscape to reduce excess fuels and mitigate extreme wildfire risk. Despite the benefits of prescribed burning to forest restoration goals, these managed fires still produce smoke, which may impact the health of surrounding communities. 

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Coastal states get a report card grade and recommendations based on their current coastal policies, in hopes of creating stronger coastal resilience in the face of climate change.

Written by: Andrea Richter-Sanchez M.M.A 2023 UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs Andrea worked with the Surfrider Foundation to assess 31 coastal states’ climate and coastal policies in order to produce the 2022 State of the Beach Report– a report that encourages policy makers to follow Surfrider’s recommendations and to empower citizens to work with policy makers to ensure their local communities are effectively planning in the face of climate change. 

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Tips from the Undergrad Cohort: How to Find Climate Science Research

UW is known for its wide array of research experiences. Yet, as an undergraduate, actually finding and securing these opportunities can be difficult, especially if you don’t already have contacts, past experience, or advanced knowledge of where to look. To address this issue, the PCC Undergraduate Cohort (UCo) annually endeavors to make tips and resources more available, through a seminar/panel titled “How to Get Involved in Climate Science Research as an Undergraduate.” The information session, held on 11/7, featured details on research at UW, how to find it, and even advice from current undergrads engaged in research, and intended to provide everything you need to know about undergraduate climate science research. 

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