The School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) turned 50 this academic year, so we asked Nives Dolšak, professor and director of SMEA, and Dave Fluharty, professor and longest serving SMEA faculty member, for their perspectives on this milestone. With 11 core faculty and strong support from professors of practice, adjunct, affiliate and emeritus faculty, SMEA offers a two-year, interdisciplinary, in-residence program with graduates receiving a Master of Marine Affairs degree.
The Biden-Harris Administration on April 3 announced the appointment of Phil Levin, professor of practice in environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington and lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy in Washington state, as director for the first-ever U.S. National Nature Assessment.
The NNA will take an interdisciplinary approach to better understand the role of nature in the lives of people across the country, integrating science with traditional ways of knowing and the needs of communities.
A new study from the University of Washington has found that forest ecosystems may be facing more profound ecological impacts due to wildfires than has previously been documented. The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, shows that as wildfire activity increases with climate change and more forests face multiple wildfires within a short period of time, overlapping fires are changing forest resilience.
Seattle is reimagining and creating a living urban waterfront — building a healthy future for the city’s people, wildlife, culture and economy. The UW has been part of the project from the start.
Seattle’s waterfront renewal is one of the region’s most ambitious and innovative undertakings since the Seattle World’s Fair transformed the city in 1962. Finally reconnecting Seattle’s waterfront to its downtown, this $750 million renovation and restoration will create a network of public parks, cultural celebration spaces and an expanded aquarium — while building a sophisticated, seismically sound, salmon-friendly new seawall.
I’ve been thinking — and worrying — about climate change for a long time. In 1980, I came to the University of Washington to pursue a PhD, wrestling with the problem of detecting the fingerprint of human impact on the climate system. The topic held sway with my colleagues but had no traction with the general public.
All that has changed, and that change is now visible in many ways across the globe.
The College of the Environment has an outstanding opportunity for an Assistant or Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to join our team.
As one of the world’s preeminent environmental research institutions, the University of Washington College of the Environment believes that excellent science, teaching and scholarship can only be achieved in a community which is inclusive and supportive of people of all backgrounds and identities.
Forecasters are predicting a “three-peat La Niña” this year. This will be the third winter in a row that the Pacific Ocean has been in a La Niña cycle, something that’s happened only twice before in records going back to 1950.
New research led by the University of Washington offers a possible explanation. The study, recently published in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that climate change is, in the short term, favoring La Niñas.
Heat-related deaths are an issue across Washington state, and they occur even in regions that typically have milder climates, according to a University of Washington study published Aug. 30 in the journal Atmosphere. This is the most extensive study yet of heat-related mortality in Washington state, and the first to look beyond the major population centers to include rural areas.
Statewide, the odds of dying were on average 8% higher in recent decades on days when the combination of temperature and humidity, known as the humidex, was in the top 1% of recorded values at that location, compared to a day with a mid-range value for humidex.
In 2017, nearly half the population of Umtanum Desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) was destroyed by a wildfire in Washington’s Hanford Reach National Monument. This unassuming perennial plant is not found anywhere else in the world — meaning catastrophic events such as this could eventually spell extinction for its corner of Washington’s rich biodiversity.
How do we protect rare, endemic plants as they come under increasing pressure from intensifying wildfires and habitat disruption?
Record-breaking heat waves have occurred recently from Delhi to the Pacific Northwest, and the number of these deadly events is expected to increase. New research from the University of Washington and Harvard University gives a range of heat impacts worldwide by the end of this century, depending on future emissions of greenhouse gases.
The study was published Aug. 25 in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment.
As glaciers worldwide retreat due to climate change, managers of national parks need to know what’s on the horizon to prepare for the future. A new study from the University of Washington and the National Park Service measures 38 years of change for glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, a stunning jewel about two hours south of Anchorage.
The study, published Aug.
A new project uses virtual reality to help communicate what climate models are predicting: Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing Earth’s temperature, melting glaciers that could create many feet of global sea level rise by the end of this century.
The Our Future Duwamish project, available to community groups through The Seattle Public Library, uses Oculus Quest 2 goggles to help viewers imagine rising seas from a vantage point along the South Seattle waterway.
Countries around the world pledged in the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or, at most, 2 degrees Celsius. As emissions rates gradually begin to decline, countries are looking at how many greenhouse gases can still be emitted while remaining below these temperature targets, which are deemed the upper limits to avoid the most catastrophic impacts to the climate system.
As the seasons change in Washington state from winter to spring, you can almost hear the collective cheers at the promise of warmer weather and sunnier days. For some, though, this time of year also marks the dreaded end of winter fun, as snow starts melting on the Pacific Northwest’s tallest peaks. But how will climate change affect outdoor recreation, not only during these transitional periods but throughout the year?