EarthLab News
Introducing Backyard Buoys: Bringing Spotters to Indigenous Communities on the Front Lines of Climate Change
EarthLab is proud to share “Backyard Buoys,” a project managed by Washington Ocean Acidification Center co-director Jan Newton. Through EarthLab’s centralized service model, Newton was able to put through a major project proposal for the NFS Convergence Accelerator program, where she and her team received $5 million to collaborate with Sofar Ocean Technologies and coastal Indigenous partners on a community-led ocean observing project. Backyard Buoys uses simple and affordable instruments, called “Spotters,” to put access to and stewardship of ocean data in the hands of those most affected by climate change on the coast.
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The Office of the Washington State Climatologist, Climate Impacts Group, and partners release 2022 PNW Water Year Impacts Assessment
The 2022 water year was characterized by abrupt transitions in weather – from an abnormally dry winter, to an abnormally wet spring, and back to an abnormally dry summer. The Climate Impacts Group, Office of the Washington State Climatologist and others developed the 2022 Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessment to summarize the water year conditions and related impacts experienced by agricultural producers, water managers, fisheries managers and other natural resource managers. Now in its third year, this year’s assessment focuses on impacts and responses to abrupt changes in conditions.
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You May Miss These Parasites When They’re Gone
NEW YORK TIMES - Warming temperatures in one part of the world seem to have driven down the parasite population, suggesting another unexpected way that climate change harms ecosystems. EarthLab Innovation Grantee Chelsea Wood is quoted.
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Plastic pollution in the oceans is an equity issue, says UW-led report
UW News writes about a new report from the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, which incorporates case studies and analyses from around the world as well as larger, overarching recommendations for change.
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Fighting ocean acidification, one oyster at a time
Worldwide, the ocean plays an invaluable service to the planet by absorbing nearly 30% of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity. Yet this also drives a series of reactions that change seawater chemistry, and as a result the oceans are becoming more acidified, which poses a suite of problems to some marine organisms.
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To Get Out of Your Head, Get Out of Your House
Researchers from Nature and Health, an EarthLab member organization, are quoted in this article about how spending time in nature can help relieve stress and anxiety from The Atlantic.
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UW, Seattle Public Library, Seattle Public Utilities collaboration uses VR goggles to visualize sea level rise in Seattle
The Seattle Public Library and the University of Washington have created a virtual reality experience for teens and families that explores climate change and its impacts on sea level rise in Seattle’s industrialized Duwamish River and South Park neighborhood.
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A New House Bill is a Step Towards Signing CASCs into Law
As climate-related challenges unfold with increasing speed and impact, the Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) like NW CASC are hard at work delivering science to help our nation’s fish, wildlife, water, land and people adapt to the changing climate.
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Op Ed: Weather disasters can teach us how to prepare for the future
With climate change our challenge now is to reduce the impacts of flooding on our communities. We can do that by learning from these events when they happen, writes Guillaume Mauger, UW research scientist at the Climate Impacts Group in an Op-Ed.
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Seattle Times: REI Advocacy Director on Covid-19, Equity, and Mental Health
REI Co-op’s advocacy director, Marc Berejka shares the pandemic-time opportunities we have to work on accessibility in nature and spend time outside. UW’s Nature and Health initiative and our recent conference are highlighted as contributing to this national and global movement.
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