Climate Change

From wildfires to wild flowers — Pacific Northwest forests appear to be changing. New ways of thinking and managing forest lands are needed, says forest resources' Dave Peterson, who will speak Thursday, March 11, about Climate, Forests and Future: A View from Treeline.

The presentation is part of forest resources' annual series "Sustaining Our Northwest World" and is the inaugural College of the Environment's dean's lecture. The college plans to have two dean's lectures a year in the future.

Were Washington’s senators on your Valentine’s Day list this year? University of Washington WashPIRG members hope so. On Feb. 9 and 10, WashPIRG volunteers set up a card-making shop under the Suzzalo-Allen Sky Bridge complete with valentines, glitter, glue, markers, and candy hearts to munch on.

Their goal was to get students to sign Valentine’s Day cards pledging their support for global-warming initiatives.

Earth has warmed much less than expected during the industrial era based on current best estimates of Earth's "climate sensitivity" -- the amount of global temperature increase expected in response to a given rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.

In a study published online on Jan. 19 in the Journal of Climate, Stephen Schwartz of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Robert Charlson of the University of Washington and colleagues examine the reasons for this discrepancy.

Civil engineers at the University of Washington and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle office have taken a first look at how dams in the Columbia River basin, the nation's largest hydropower system, could be managed for a different climate.

Ice sheets are melting more quickly and Arctic sea ice is disappearing much faster than previously projected, and significant sea level rise is more certain than ever, according to a new global scientific synthesis prepared by some of the world's top climate scientists.
 

Sen. James Inhofe, champion of global-warming deniers, recently declared 2009 the “Year of the Skeptic.” Sadly, in some ways, he might be right.

Recent polls indicate that skeptics are gaining ground in the battle for public opinion. Americans are increasingly unsure about the causes of climate change.

Imagine the UW's Seattle campus 40 years from now:

After years of planning and research, the UW Climate Action Plan (CAP) is complete. The document, which was produced by students, faculty and administrators, outlines areas where the UW is already doing well in environmental sustainability and points out where the UW still has a lot of progress to make. The CAP doesn’t contain any actual plans that will be implemented, but instead, refers to itself as “a plan to plan.”

Combined Fund Drive Campaign
(October 13– December 3, 2010)

http://www.washington.edu/uwcfd/
Click on “search charities”
Enter “1479534” in the ‘Charity Code’ box

The University’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) was finalized and signed by President Emmert earlier this month, meeting it’s Sept. 15 deadline. The Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC) called for student feedback on a working draft of the plan last spring. “Climate change is a critical issue affecting our environment locally, regionally and globally,” said members of ESAC Sandra Archibald and Ruth Johnston in an e-mail to The Daily.