While he was serving as a U.S. representative, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) had one of the strongest environmental records in the House, and now, as the country mulls the latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Pacific Northwest is poised to become a leader in sustainability.
Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), University College London, University of New Hampshire and University of Washington analysed 300 summer Arctic sea ice forecasts from 2008 to 2013 and found that forecasts are quite accurate when sea ice conditions are close to the downward trend that has been observed in Arctic sea ice for the last 30 years. However, forecasts are not so accurate when sea ice conditions are unusually higher or lower compared to this trend.
In a twist on the concept of citizen scientist, University of Washington science students helped the state Legislature with environmental policy.
Let's say you're tired of climate inaction. Let's say you want to see somewhere in the United States that is actually, you know, doing things.
In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference?
To answer these questions, Professor Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to many of the world’s ecovillages – intentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From Los Angeles to South India and Denmark to Senegal, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes from the ground up.
Environmental advocates have a compelling story to tell, but it has been hard to get people to listen. The advocates argue that the ever increasing burden of human activities— reflected in rising world population, coupled with rising per capita GDP— is taking an increasingly heavy toll on the global environment.
A new set of video clips are making their way into classrooms across Washington. The UW’s ground-breaking TV series, Climate of Change, is now available to educators in a collection of convenient sustainability-focused video clips for easy use as a teaching tool. The collection of videos is posted online at www.youtube.com/sustainableUW.
Her journey began along the cold waters of the Koksoak River in Quebec, where as an Inuk child, Sheila Watt-Cloutier fished and picked berries in the ice and snow in the frigid Canadian north. Now Watt-Cloutier, a Nobel Prize nominee, travels the globe in the name of motherhood, indigenous people, and the Arctic environment, advocating for pollution reduction and fighting against global warming.
Curiosity about what’s happening in some of the coldest places on Earth has prompted the University of Washington to launch its first Arctic Studies minor.
The program is the first of its kind offered by a university in the lower 48.
Nadine Fabbi, associate director of the Canadian Studies Center at the Jackson School of International Studies, says the impact of climate change on the region is just one of the reasons why the university has started this program.
As spring begins to show hints of emerging, plunge back into the cold with Polar Science Weekend at Pacific Science Center.
The 9th annual celebration of snow and ice, organized by museum and the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, features UW glaciologists, biologists and climate experts. But it also brings in other community members, including local artists, photographers and zookeepers who focus on polar environments.