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19 December 2022
Seeking Comments on Two Draft AGU Position Statements
AGU members have until 20 January 2023 to comment on revisions to the organization’s position statements on ocean science and research and climate intervention. The statement on ocean science and research focuses on the international need for integrated research, extensive education, and effective management actions to sustainably govern ocean resources and address the inequitable impacts of climate change. It calls for collaboration among diverse stakeholders to forge a path of …
31 May 2022
AGU sends endorsement letter for the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy (NCARS) Act to Congressional Leadership
On May 31 2022, AGU sent a letter to leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate endorsing the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy (NCARS) Act. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and our community of 130,000 worldwide in the Earth and space sciences, I am writing to thank you for introducing H.R.6461, the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy (NCARS) Act, and to offer AGU’s official …
18 May 2022
AGU Endorses the Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASC) Act
On 21 April 2022, AGU sent a letter to House and Senate leadership endorsing the Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASC) Act. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and our community of 130,000 worldwide who work in the Earth and space sciences, I am writing to thank you for introducing H.R.6654, the Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASC) Act, and to offer AGU’s official endorsement for this important bill. Under …
6 December 2021
AGU sends letter of support to Congressional leadership about science and innovation package
On 6 December 2021, AGU sent a letter to Congressional leadership thanking them for crafting U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S. 1260), the National Science Foundation for the Future Act (H.R. 2225), outlining how critical this legislation is to advancing diversity and equity in the sciences, mitigating the impact of the pandemic on students and early career researchers, and more. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and …
19 November 2021
AGU and other organizations send letter to Congress in support of the new Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE)
On 18 November 2021, AGU and 32 other organizations representing public and environmental health, and the children’s, women’s, medical, and scientific communities, we are writing in support of the new Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE). As organizations representing public and environmental health, and the children’s, women’s, medical, and scientific communities, we are writing in support of the new Department …
10 November 2021
AGU Endorses the National Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program Act
On 5 November 2021, AGU sent a letter to Representatives Lofgren, McNerney, Perlmutter and Bonamici endorsing the National Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program Act. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and our community of 130,000 worldwide in the Earth and space sciences, I am writing to thank you for crafting and introducing H.R.5781, the National Wildland Fire Risk Reduction Program Act, and to offer AGU’s official endorsement for this …
22 October 2021
AGU sends letter to Senator Joe Manchin urging climate action
On 22 October 2021, AGU’s CEO Randy Fiser sent a letter to Senator Joe Manchin (WV) urging him to pass the budget reconciliation package for it’s climate provisions. On behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and our community of 130,000 worldwide in the Earth and space sciences, I am writing to urge you to support legislative provisions that will help to curtail the devastating impacts of climate change, globally, in the U.S., and …
13 July 2021
The peak of summer warmth is near
By Ned Rozell You may not notice it as you scooped fish out of the Copper River or rode your bike through the tawny light of 10 p.m., but Alaska is about to make a left turn toward winter. Much of the state will soon reach the average yearly date when the air won’t get any warmer. In Fairbanks, on July 19 the average daily temperature based on about a …
18 March 2021
AGU’s 2021 Policy Priorities
As a scientific society whose members’ research and interests span the universe, AGU’s science policy interests are just as vast – from scientific integrity to funding for science to building resilience to natural hazards. In 2019, AGU began developing annual policy priorities to help focus our advocacy work and speed the advancement of important science policy and legislation. For example, last Congress by focusing on our policy priorities AGU was able to secure passage of the Space Weather Research …
26 February 2021
Biden’s first 30 days in office: what it’s meant for science
President Biden campaigned on bringing science back to the center of policy. Knowing this, AGU shared a First 100 Days Memo with the Biden-Harris Transition team, laying out key priorities for climate change, the role of science, and a strong, diverse and inclusive scientific workforce. Now, a little more than a month into the Biden administration, we take a closer look at what progress has – and has not – …
6 January 2021
A new Congress and a new administration: what to expect in 2021
The year 2020 was monumental for U.S. elections: more than 159 million people voted, the highest number ever recorded in an election. President Joseph R. Biden’s win was certified on 6 January by Congress. Already, President Biden has shared his priorities for his time in office: COVID-19, economic recovery, addressing racial equity and climate change. Democrats maintained control of the House of Representatives and flipped the Senate, giving President-elect Biden …
16 November 2020
The Western US in Flames – What’s Going On?
by: Shane Coffield, PhD Candidate in Earth System Science at UC Irvine It feels difficult to believe that the Australian bushfires happened just earlier this year. Since then, a pandemic, social unrest, and a pivotal U.S. election have dominated the news cycle. Through all of this, however, the climate crisis hasn’t taken a break. The wildfires in the Western US are a stark reminder of that truth. They are …
10 April 2020
Moving Forward: A Guide for Health Professionals to Build Momentum on Climate Action
AGU has partnered with ecoAmerica and other scientific organizations on a new resource, Moving Forward: A Guide for Health Professionals to Build Momentum on Climate Action. AGU’s Net Zero Building Renovation is featured as a case study on how building design can help reduce energy use. MOVING FORWARD TOOLKIT Climate change is the greatest health threat of our time, and in response, health professionals across the …
7 April 2020
NASA study adds a pinch of salt to El Niño models
When modeling the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ocean-climate cycle, adding satellite sea surface salinity — or saltiness — data significantly improves model accuracy, according to a new study. ENSO is an irregular cycle of warm and cold climate events called El Niño and La Niña. In normal years, strong easterly trade winds blow from the Americas toward southeast Asia, but in an El Niño year, those winds are reduced and sometimes even reversed. Warm water that was “piled up” in the western Pacific flows back toward the Americas, changing atmospheric pressure and moisture to produce droughts in Asia and more frequent storms and floods in the Americas. The reverse pattern is called a La Niña, in which the ocean in the eastern Pacific is cooler than normal.
12 December 2019
One of Europe’s worst famines likely caused by devastating floods
Europe’s Great Famine of 1315–1317 is considered one of the worst population collapses in the continent’s history. Historical records tell of unrelenting rain accompanied by mass crop failure…Now, new research using tree ring records confirms the historical data, showing the years of the Great Famine were some of Europe’s wettest.
6 December 2019
Peatlands release more methane when disturbed by roads
Roads built through acidic wetlands may make greenhouse gas emissions from the wetlands spike by damming natural water flow, according to a new study in AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
27 November 2019
Funding an Energy Transition
As appropriators are still trying to finalize the 2020 budget, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development sat down last week for a hearing about the DOE’s role in addressing climate change. The main thematic questions of the hearing were: What technologies will help move us into the future sustainably, and how can DOE facilitate the energy transition? This lively and lengthy hearing made a strong case for not …
4 November 2019
Deep Carbon, Deep Insights into Research Funding
These days, most researchers know very well that in order to get funding, it’s helpful to already have funding. The solemn reality of the grant cycle is that solid preliminary results and immediate applications are what beget federally funded projects. Rarely can you get money for just a neat idea or mysterious question. Seed funding from the government in the form of high-risk grants from agencies like the Department …
5 June 2019
The Ocean: A Sink for Carbon, Heat, and Now… Wealth
Dr. David Trossman earned a BA in mathematics and a BA/MA in physics from Washington University in St. Louis, a MA in public policy from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in physical oceanography from the University of Washington-Seattle before moving on to do postdocs, work at NASA, and land at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin, where he currently works as a …
29 May 2019
Using the past to unravel the future of Arctic wetlands
The study found that under 21st century warming conditions and with adequate moisture, certain Arctic wetlands may transition into peatlands, creating new natural carbon storage systems and to some extent mitigating carbon losses from degrading peatlands in southern regions.
