One fall day on Washington’s Mount Rainier, Josh Brandon and a group of fellow active duty platoon leaders discovered something about the outdoors that could improve the lives of veterans.
It was September 2009 and the group had decided to make a late-season summit attempt of Washington’s highest peak as part of a team-building exercise. The platoon leaders, who were all members of the same infantry company, began their climb in the early morning hours. Conditions were windy—a storm was forecast for later that day. About halfway up Disappointment Cleaver, the team paused to collect their bearings and a leader was hit in the neck with a boulder, resulting in a spinal contusion. Drawing on their previous military training, the group treated his injury and evacuated him to safety by nightfall.
“We figured out that mountaineering replicated the best parts of combat,” said Brandon, 41, who is now an Outdoor Research athlete and a graduate student and research program manager at the University of Washington. “A small, tight group. Taking risks. Facing adversity. Out there in nature.”
Washington Ocean Acidification Center co-director Terrie Klinger talks to King 5’s Alison Morrow about ocean acidification and its effect on our region.
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, this week released a new document that looks at the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) above preindustrial levels. That was the more ambitious goal established by governments in late 2015 through the Paris Agreement on climate. Governments committed to keeping the planet’s temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above preindustrial levels, but to aim for a change no greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences and EarthLab Faculty Advisor, was a lead author on the document approved Oct. 8. The IPCC “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 C,” compares the effects of 1.5 versus 2 degrees Celsius global warming, the possible consequences of those temperature shifts for human and natural systems, and the changes needed to meet those two targets.
Environmental Conversations feature prominent environmental leaders and practitioners who share their perspective on real world environmental policymaking. In collaboration with the EarthLab, the Center for Environmental Politics will host three such conversations with Sally Jewell, drawing on her experience in the government, the for-profit and the non-profit sector. The first conversation will focus on federal government and environmental policy.
Sally Jewell served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Barack Obama. Before serving as Interior Secretary, Jewell was President and CEO of REI. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Washington College of the Environment.
This initiative will be known as Doug and Maggie Walker Environmental Conversations to honor the tremendous impact both Doug and Maggie have had on practical aspects of environmental policy locally, regionally and nationally.
Join us Tuesday, October 30, 4:00-6:00 in the Allen Library‘s Petersen Room
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.
The success of the Center for Creative Conservation has demonstrated that trans-disciplinary engagement can have significant impact on the co-creation of knowledge. The notion that we can bring together groups to incubate ideas that reach far across disciplines and engage practitioners, artists, educators, community group leaders and others in deep and sustained conversation is timely and has been well received.
Since its establishment, the Center has been a member of UW EarthLab—a new environmental institute housing other groups such as the Climate Impacts Group, the Center for Health and the Global Environment, and the Washington Ocean Acidification Center. EarthLab’s inaugural Executive Director, Ben Packard, has been working over the past year to clarify the vision, priorities and strategic outcomes for EarthLab. As this vision has taken shape, it has become clear that the activities of the Center are a key element of EarthLab. Rather than duplicating the efforts of C3 at the EarthLab level, we have decided to integrate the Center for Creative Conservation into EarthLab.
We are joining forces in a deeper way, with C3 becoming an integral part of EarthLab. We are sad to be retiring the C3 name and website, but excited that the work we are doing in partnership with you will continue and indeed be more fully supported as part of EarthLab’s core work. We are thrilled at the opportunity this presents for our continued growth, our ability to reach new audiences and partners, and to realize an even broader impact in our world through collaborative and innovative approaches to complex environmental challenges.
In early October, EarthLab will update its website and there you will be able to find the Center’s activities, both past and present. Going forward, all future activities we conduct will be EarthLab core activities. Sara will continue her work under the new title of Social Science Lead at EarthLab and Josh will shift over to become the Faculty Director of EarthLab, working closely with the Executive Director.
If you have any questions about this change and what lies ahead, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Over the last six months, EarthLab has worked to establish a bold set of outcomes and is planning a comprehensive awareness raising campaign in the fall. In addition, there will be a grant program to engage a broader group of faculty and community partners in applied research. We believe now is the time to bring this work together and to support a broader set of programs to greater impact.
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. Skanska is purposely carving out embodied carbon in materials in construction—from the cradle to the grave—because it is manageable, said Stacy Smedley, director of sustainability for Skanska USA Building Inc., at the Carbon Smart Building Day, held on Sept. 11 in advance of the summit and attended by more than 300 people in the buildings sector.
“Benchmarking and understanding data is important” but existing calculators have different baseline data, which is not necessarily open source, so using them results in different numbers, added Smedley. EC3 is not only open source, it is free for all to use.
Pheng Lor enjoying dim sum with ECOSS staff. Photo Credit: Will Chen / ECOSS.
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.
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. The Fellowship Program enables graduate students and postdocs from a variety of scientific backgrounds to work on projects that align with the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s science priorities, as well as receive instruction in the principles and practices of co-production of decision-relevant science.
Fellows participate in a University of Washington graduate seminar on the theory and practice of linking knowledge with action to address modern environmental challenges, cohort meetings and skills-building webinars. Fellows are invited to participate in regional science/practice convenings and present their work at the annual Northwest Climate Conference. To date, more than 150 graduate students and postdocs have received Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Fellowships to support work ranging from examining climate impacts on forest insect outbreaks to understanding how eelgrass can reduce the impact of ocean acidification on shellfish.
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.
Doug Walker Lecture with Richard Louv at Benaroya Hall
Join EarthLab and the College of the Environment for an evening with our 2018 Doug Walker Lecturer, Richard Louv. A journalist and the author of nine books, including “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” “The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Nature in a Virtual World” and “Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life,” Louv will discuss the central role nature plays in human health and well-being at every age and stage of life.
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. Science communication, or moving science outside the walls of academia, isn’t easy—but it’s imperative. Tyler Ung wants to play a role in that imperative.
Tyler is a 2018 graduate of the University of Washington’s Program on the Environment, a bachelor of arts degree offered through the College of the Environment.
He’s an artist and an academic—an atypical combination that may become more less-so as institutions, organizations, and individuals see the value of communicating science through both academic and cultural lenses. Tyler believes people practicing both disciplines within their traditional silos falls short in reaching the public, especially when it comes to contextualizing the precarious situations we face.
“In science, we’re taught to act inhuman to remain objective. On the other hand, art has been a method of communication since our ancestors could draw on rocks, but a common response to art is, ‘I don’t get it,” he said. “If we’ve got senators throwing snowballs, we know we have a gap in communicating science into public discourse.”
Tyler Ung
Recent UW Program on the Environment alum Tyler Ung.
As an intern at UW’s Center for Creative Conservation, now fully integrated in EarthLab, Tyler developed a senior project focusing on the budding “sci-art” movement, a concept that bridges the science communication gap through creative expression. Working with Sara Jo Breslow, an environmental anthropologist and the Center’s program manager, he wanted to know if sci-art could truly increase environmental awareness, where and how it’s currently being employed, and to try his hand at creating sci-art.
Tyler developed three categories that sci-art efforts commonly incorporate to appeal to individuals’ hearts and minds. Based on Kathleen Dean Moore’s book Moral Ground, he looked at sci-art projects through anthro-centric, bio-centric, and human virtue-oriented lenses. That is, sci-art often speaks to people by appealing to their sense of moral obligation to future generations of humans, the Earth itself and all its creatures and/or compassion and preservation for oneself.
Digging deeper, he wanted to see sci-art efforts and opportunities around the globe. In addition to examining the Pacific Northwest, Tyler analyzed sci-art’s prevalence through two study abroad experiences offered through the University of Washington. He traveled to China with Program on the Environment Lecturer Kristi Straus, as part of her “international flipped classroom” partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing, as well as spent time in Bangalore, India with UW’s Grand Challenges Impact Lab.
“China, India, and the US. heavily impact the trajectory towards a more livable future. They hold records as one of the biggest emitters, highest in urban population growth and most wasteful per capita,” he said. “This inspired me to examine and connect these three cities and countries.”
Through site visits, walking tours and informal interviews, Tyler concluded that integration between arts and sciences were lacking—especially at the large research-focused academic institution he surveyed in China.
“They’re doing great environmental research [at Tsinghua University], but it’s very hard science-based. Based on the conversations I had with students and researchers, there isn’t a lot of opportunity for multi-disciplinary work between the arts and sciences .”
Tyler Ung
Originami by Tyler Ung.
Back in Seattle, his hometown, and informed by both his qualitative and quantitative research, Tyler began building out his own sci-art works—a set of mixed-media images combining photos and line-drawings. In each piece, he alludes to the disassociation of everyday life from the grand scale of environmental issues we face. Recently, he has displayed his works—a collection called A Mind’s Meadow: Beauty Beyond Suppression—at Pioneer AXIS Gallery in Seattle, as well as the university’s EarthDay and TEDx events.
Tyler Ung
Bare Necessities by Tyler Ung.
“It’s inspiring to hear other peoples’ perspectives of my art—it solidifies the value and beauty of the work as their ideas expand beyond my initial considerations,” he said.
Tyler Ung
Lost Loris by Tyler Ung.
Tyler says that we see art and design in everything we do, from business to academics to walking down the street. When sci-art becomes a more prominent way to communicate about environmental issues, he thinks there’s a huge opportunity to display that work in a variety of contexts and mediums.
Achieving these goals on a broader, more global scale still presents a host of challenges. One of the biggest challenges sci-art—and environmental education, in general—faces is that it’s difficult to trace and measure its impact. Still, Tyler is optimistic about the movement’s ability to create meaningful change in the face of rapid global shifts.
“Art has prominently influenced our histories, values and cultural identities, but we’ve removed that human-ness from the way we talk about science and research. People are seeing sci-art as a way to engage in big conversations now, and they’re seeing that we need to talk about the human-environment dynamic as much as we need the facts and technologies coming out of science,” he said. “The concept of sci-art is growing, and my hope is that it breaks apart the echo chambers of information that exist within every group and community.”
After a summer of travel and freelance work, Tyler wants to study the connections between arts and sciences, as well as environmental sociology at the graduate-level.
One fall day on Washington’s Mount Rainier, Josh Brandon and a group of fellow active duty platoon leaders discovered something about the outdoors that could improve the lives of veterans.
