This great blog, a joint effort of SAFS’ Steven Roberts and Carolyn Friedman, features active research being done on ocean acidification within the College’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.  A recent post features the Washington Sea Grant’s autumn newsletter (pdf).  Among the many insightful articles is one highlighting how students at Seattle’s Garfield High School got to learn about ocean acidification.  

Sunset hits Seattle at 4:18 p.m. through Dec. 17 — the earliest time of the year — though the shortest day of the year isn’t until several days later. Dale Durran, professor of atmospheric sciences, is quoted. 

Newly published research from College researchers Qinghua Ding, Eric Steig, David Battisti, and Marcel Küttel shows how warmer-than-usual sea-surface temperatures, especially in the central tropics, lead to changes in atmospheric circulation that influence conditions near the Antarctic coast line.  Anomalously warm waters set up westerly winds that push surface water away from glaciers lining the Amundsen Sea and allow warmer deep water to rise to the surface under the edges of the glaciers. 

Scientists are hot on the trail of planets that are “just right” for life.  This article features work and words from ESS’ Peter Ward. 

UW philosophy professor Steve Gardiner likens climate change to a perfect storm — a convergence of three difficult problems that so far we’ve found ourselves unable to face, much less solve. Climate change is global. What one nation does affects every other nation. Climate change is intergenerational. What we do today will affect people yet to be born. We have no adequate theory with which to tackle climate change.