Climate Change

The University of Washington Board of Regents voted to remove any investment in coal companies by the university's endowment funds.

The decision comes after years of work by the student group Divest UW, who have been advocating for divestment from fossil fuel companies. The group sent a petition to then-UW President Michael K. Young in December 2012, and have been talking with the Board of Regents and other UW groups since. Divest UW made a presentation to the Board of Regents this March to support divestment from coal companies.

The University of Washington signed the Washington Business Climate Declaration on March 31st, a statement which supports using energy efficiently, investing in cleaner fuels, advancing renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Declaration was drafted by the Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP).

Following rapid warming in the late 20th century, this century has so far seen surprisingly little increase in the average temperature at the Earth’s surface. At first this was a blip, then a trend, then a puzzle for the climate science community.

Researchers from the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory are part of a large-scale effort to closely monitor the summer sea-ice melting in the Arctic.

Sensors placed around ice in the Beaufort Sea will provide a wealth of data on the melting process, which will help discover how changing ocean conditions will affect the ice. The project, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, includes scientists from several countries and institutions.

Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.

Three years' worth of readings from the European Space Agency's CryoSat 2 satellite indicate that Antarctica's ice sheets are losing 159 billion tons of ice per year — which is twice as much as the estimates from previous altimeter surveys.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough water to raise global seas by several feet, is thinning. Scientists have been warning of its collapse, based on theories, but with few firm predictions or timelines.

Key crops eaten by a large portion of the world’s population have lower levels of zinc and iron when grown at the elevated carbon dioxide levels that scientists predict will occur by the middle of the century, according to a new study.

The rapid melting of Greenland glaciers is captured in the documentary “Chasing Ice.” The retreat of the ice edge from one year to the next sends more water into the sea.

Steve Scher speaks with Amy Snover, Director of the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington, about the findings of the National Climate Assessment. The report, which was released Tuesday, is an extensive study on how climate change is affecting the United States. Snover was one of 300 experts consulted in the creation of the assessment.