EarthLab News
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell brings leadership to UW community, new EarthLab initiative
Sally Jewell has walked the halls of the White House and cared for a fifth of all U.S. land. She has practiced diplomacy at boardroom tables and leadership at one of the nation’s most successful outdoor retail companies. She has climbed Mount Rainier seven times.
Now, Jewell brings a lifetime of experience in business, nonprofits, government and the outdoors to the University of Washington, where one of her tasks is to help shape the future of EarthLab, a new university-wide institute that seeks to connect scholars with community partners to solve our most difficult environmental problems.
Introducing EarthLab
Harriet Bullitt Endowed Executive Director Ben Packard and Advisory Council Chair Sally Jewell introduce you to UW EarthLab. EarthLab is a new institute that stands at the intersection of science and humanity, focusing where society’s needs are greatest and true impact can be made.
Learn more about the role EarthLab plays as a boundary-spanning organization at the University of Washington.
Center for Creative Conservation transitions to EarthLab
Since its establishment, the Center for Creative Conservation has been a member of UW EarthLab along with others, like the Climate Impacts Group and the Washington Ocean Acidification Center. Now the Center and EarthLab are joining forces in a deeper way, with the Center becoming an integral part of EarthLab. Read about the changes below in a letter from Josh Lawler, Faculty Director for EarthLab and Ben Packard, Harriet Bullitt Endowed Executive Director of EarthLab.
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Reducing embodied carbon and operational emissions in buildings
Last week, at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft announced it is the first large corporate user of a new tool to track the carbon emissions of raw building materials. Microsoft is piloting the tool, called the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator, or EC3, in the remodel of its 72-acre Seattle campus.
The open-source EC3, which is running on Microsoft Azure, was developed by Skanska with the University of Washington Carbon Leadership Forum, Interface and C-Change Labs.
Doris Duke Scholars engage underserved communities around environmental sustainability
Dedication. Passion. Determination. Resilience. Pride. The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars exuded these feelings and many others during the Conservation Scholar Summit, where individuals shared connections with their communities, cultures and environment. Most significantly, they planted their banners of belonging to the environmental movement — a fitting conclusion to the scholars’ summer.
ECOSS was fortunate to host two Doris Duke scholars this summer: Pheng Lor, a UC Berkeley student focusing on conservation and LGBT studies, and MaKail Crawford, hailing from Wesleyan University working on classics and Latino studies.
NW CASC Fellowship Program delivers actionable science and leadership
Creating science that can help natural resource managers and and policy makers make sound decisions about emerging climate-related risks is critical. Through the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s Fellowship Program, not only is decision-relevant science being advanced, but the next generation of leaders in collaborative research is also taking shape.
Key to the Fellowship Program’s success is its focus on helping early-career scientists deepen both their disciplinary expertise and their ability to collaborate with regional natural resource managers and decision-makers to develop science that helps answer critical management questions.
2018 Nature and Health Symposium and Doug Walker Lecture
Join us for a day exploring the connecting between nature and human health at our 2018 Nature and Health Symposium and Dough Walker Lecture.
Nature and Health Symposium
This annual one-day symposium held each fall brings together professionals and community leaders in the fields of health, conservation, design and planning, and education to learn from each other and explore common goals and collective strategies related to the human health benefits of being in nature, from gardens to wildlands.
Combining science and art to shift our thinking and spur action in a changing world
We’re living in the Anthropocene, or the epoch in which humans are—for the first time—the dominant driver of global change related to climate and the environment. As polar ice melts, sea levels rise, and storm and wildfire seasons get longer and more intense, climate projections suggest the Earth will be several degrees warmer by 2100. Although most Americans say climate change is an important topic, research shows fewer than half see it talked about in the media and just one in five discuss it with their peers.
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Forecasting corrosive ocean conditions for shellfish growers in Washington
For people who make their living connected to nature, a favorable environment is critical. For farmers, that means having enough rain to bring a crop to harvest. For ski resort operators, that means having enough snow for a robust ski season. For commercial fishermen, that means having seasonal ocean temperatures that favor the fish they need for market.
The same goes for shellfish growers in Washington, who rely on the Northwest’s historically favorable marine waters to help produce delectable invertebrates, like clams and oysters.
Sea-level rise report contains best projections yet for Washington’s coasts
One certainty under climate change is that global ocean levels are rising. A new report led by Washington Sea Grant and the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group provides the clearest picture yet of what to expect in Washington state.
The report includes projections for more than 150 different sites along the Washington coastline, from all marine shorelines in Washington state.