While we’ve heard the analogy that carbon dioxide is like a blanket—wrapping the Earth’s atmosphere and trapping heat—in the long run the “how” of global warming changes, according to new research by scientists here at UW and at MIT. As the planet’s ice melts, and its warmer air carries more water, it will absorb more solar radiation than would have otherwise bounced off of clouds, ice, or snow.
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Dean Lisa Graumlich and associate dean Julia Parrish are among several signatories from the College of the Environment and UW calling to increase the diversity of voices in how we practice conservation. Joining over 200 others, the authors of a new comment in Nature discuss how increasing diversity at the conservation table can help move us globally to a more “shared vision of a thriving planet.”
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Oceanography students in the College of the Environment scoured the bottom of Lake Union on a research cruise, testing out new high-tech equipment that allows users to peer through the lake’s deep waters. Students set sail on the Clifford A. Barnes, one of several ships and boats operated by the University of Washington. King 5 reporters joined the students for the excursion, capturing video of what they were up to and what they saw on the lake bottom.
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A new study led by Oregon State University, with significant contributions from the University of Washington, shows that the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide that contributed to the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago did not occur gradually but rather was characterized by three abrupt pulses. Scientists are not sure what caused these abrupt increases, during which carbon dioxide levels rose about 10 to 15 parts per million—or about 5 percent per episode—during a span of one to two centuries.
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In a country that boasts an awe-inspiring system of national parks, the Pacific Northwest may be especially lucky. But even remote parks and forests can’t escape the problem of human-induced climate change. Future shifts could affect everything from how people access the parks to what activities are possible once they arrive—not to mention the plants and animals that call those places home.
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