#climate research

[hope-for-the-planet]

5 citizen science projects that have actually made a real difference for the environment

Scientists can’t be everywhere all at once, as much as they’d like to. Many of the problems citizen science helps solve are concerned with s

Some really cool stories of citizen scientists allowing researchers to cast a wider net in a variety of environmental areas such as:

•Invasive species detection and eradication

•Historical climate data

•Mosquito and mosquito-borne disease tracking

•Wombat monitoring

If this is at all your jam, checking out citizen science initiatives in your area or those with remote participation. Most are low resource and time commitment and some only involve work that can be done on the computer--like comparing pictures or transcribing scanned historical documents.

[reasonsforhope]

Researchers say public pressure can shift climate policy — but one thing makes or breaks progress

University of California San Diego researchers studied the public pressures faced by the Brazilian government in the wake of wildfires in 20

"Amid record-high temperatures, devastating disasters, and the resulting climate anxiety that comes with them, it can be easy to give in to despair. 

The resounding question of “does this even matter?” likely echoes on a loop, every time you toss an item in the recycling bin, or call your elected officials for the umpteenth time.

But according to research from the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, public outcry can indeed lead to significant environmental action — even when public officials are openly hostile to climate-forward policies.

Their paper, titled “Going Viral: Public Attention and Environmental Action in the Amazon,” will soon be published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. It focuses on the “unprecedented” public scrutiny following forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon in August of 2019.

These fires occurred soon after Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president, after a staunchly anti-environmental campaign.

But after analyzing both media coverage and international pressure towards Brazil’s federal government, the researchers found that the increased public attention resulted in a 22% decrease in fires in the country’s Amazon Rainforest. 

This, in turn, translated into the avoidance of an estimated 24.8 million tons of CO2 emissions.

“Our research underscores the significant role that public attention and media coverage can play in influencing local environmental policies and actions,” the study’s coauthor Teevrat Garg, said in a statement...

“The 2019 surge in attention led to immediate governmental responses, which contributed to the notable decrease in fires,” he added.

To come to these conclusions, the researchers compared fire activity in Brazil with that in Peru and Bolivia, countries that did not receive the same amount of public pressure, though typically still have the same level of fire activity per square kilometer."

-via GoodGoodGood, October 4, 2024

[joe-england]

Ex-NOAA employees re-create a climate data site shut down by Trump : NPR

Ex-NOAA employees re-create a valuable climate data site shut down by Trump

Former NOAA staffers have launched a new website that provides climate information. It replaces a government site that was shut down when th

[gwydionmisha]

How Big Oil's big money influences climate research

A new study offers the first comprehensive look at the ties between fossil fuel companies and universities. It's not pretty.

[wataksampingan]

I'm not in the US nor am I a US citizen, but the Weather & Climate Livestream has been very informative.

Currently there's a presentation about coral bleaching and what sort of data are collected and used in an effort to save them, or slow down the bleaching events. Coral reefs and their survival are personally important to me, so I'm paying attention.

All this to say: Hey Americans, I'm just a filthy nobody from the other end of the world. But corals are a cause close to my heart and this made me want to yell for it, and for this livestream that's trying to gain traction (and media attention).

You've got very cool, important work being done even now - which will affect the rest of us in the world, for better or worse - and you have very cool, enthusiastic people doing the work, like the specific scientist in the screenshots, Mariya Galochkina, even now. If corals aren't your thing, there have been and will be other topics covered e.g. agriculture and climate, typhoons, floods, extreme heat, water quality etc.

We can help you with views, but your own scientists and researchers need you to yell for them.

From the WCS website (which has its whole schedule and certain highlights up):

From Wednesday, May 28th to Sunday, June 1st, join meteorologists and climate scientists from across the US as we share our work, and show you what makes it so vital. We will clarify the impact of the cuts on this research, and answer your questions about weather and climate research in the US.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO WATCH (Hour 43 /100 at time of posting).

(Yes other non-US people, it's US-centric but I'm willing to bet my own country and many other's coral scientists and researchers rely on/work with the NOAA's data and maps to try and save our own reefs. If that goes down, research and conservation/preservation/regeneration is going to be more difficult than it already is. And I'm not giving up our corals without a damn fight, in whatever capacity.)

Shoutout to @thrivingisthegoal for the original post calling for attention to the livestream! Loads of people in the livestream chat came in via your post; more power to you 💪

[juicetrump2]

Trump administration to dismantle key climate research center in Colorado

Governor Jared Polis warned that breaking up Boulder’s NCAR would put ‘public safety at risk’

[pale-blue-home]

🌾🍚🧬 A new strain of rice offers hope for drought-stricken communities in Chile! Chilean scientists are trialing the “Jaspe” rice strain, described as more environmentally conscious, “less-thirsty,” and “climate-smart.” Trials have also proven the strain to be high-yield with the right growing method, producing nearly ten times more than a conventional rice field!

Less-thirsty rice offers hope in drought-stricken Chile

A cold, dry part of Chile might not sound like the best place to grow rice, a famously thirsty grain that thrives in tropical condition

[rjzimmerman]

Two Scientific Groups Say They’ll Keep Working on U.S. Climate Assessment

The organizations said they would publish researchers’ work even after the Trump administration decision to dismiss all authors on the proje

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Major science groups said Friday that they would publish work for the country’s flagship report on climate change, a project that the Trump administration threw into limbo by dismissing hundreds of scientists who had been working on it.

The American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society said they would publish work originally meant for the assessment in their journals, should the authors choose to do so.

“It’s incumbent on us to ensure our communities, our neighbors, our children are all protected and prepared for the mounting risks of climate change,” Brandon Jones, the president of the union and a program director with the National Science Foundation, said in the statement. “This collaboration provides a critical pathway for a wide range of researchers to come together and provide the science needed to support the global enterprise pursuing solutions to climate change.”

The National Climate Assessment is a comprehensive review of the latest climate science that gauges how climate change is affecting the country and what can be done to adapt and mitigate its effects. There have been five published since 2000. The sixth edition was scheduled to be published in early 2028.

The new effort would not replace the federal report, which is Congressionally mandated, the statement from the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When the authors of the National Climate Assessment, known as NCA6, were dismissed, the email they received said that “the scope of the report is currently being re-evaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990.” That legislation created the U.S. Global Change Research Program, where the administration cut staff and funds in April.

It is not clear whether the administration will proceed with the assessment in a revised form, try to circumvent Congress and cancel it entirely, or pursue another path.

“This effort cannot replace NCA6, which undergoes thorough public and governmental review,” said Jason West, an environmental scientist at the University of North Carolina who led the air quality chapter in the previous assessment. “Nonetheless, it gives author teams that had already begun working an opportunity to complete and publish their work.”