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Human activities are a significant contributor to the rise in global sea levels, which have risen about 7-8 inches since 1900 with about 3 of those inches occurring since 1993. By 2100, global sea levels are very likely to rise by 1.0-4.3 feet above year 2000 levels depending upon future emissions of greenhouse gases, though emerging science regarding Antarctic ice sheet stability suggests that a rise above 8 feet is physically possible. The amount of relative rise will not be uniform along the U.S. coastlines due to changes in Earth's gravitational field and rotation from melting of land ice, changes in ocean circulation, and vertical land motion. As sea levels have risen, annual flood frequencies of disruptive/minor tidal flooding have been accelerating within Atlantic and Gulf Coast cities over the last couple of decades. With continued rise, it is likely that damaging/moderate coastal flooding will occur several times a year within dozens of U.S. coastal locations within the next several decades.
About the speaker: William Sweet is a NOAA oceanographer researching changes in nuisance-to-extreme coastal flood risk due to sea level rise (SLR). He has assessed risks to U.S. coastal military installations worldwide for the military and is an author of the 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment. He lives in Annapolis, MD to witness SLR effects first-hand.
Webinar access: Mymeeting webinar uses phone and internet. Audio is only available over the phone: dial toll-free from US or CAN: 1-877-708-1667. Enter code 7028688# For the webcast, goto www.mymeetings.com Under "Participant Join", click "Join an Event", then add conf no: 744925156. No code is needed for the web. Be sure to install the WebEx application when logging in - the temporary application works fine.
New observations and new research have increased our understanding of past, current, and future climate change. The Fourth National Climate Assessment confirms prior assessments in concluding that the climate on our planet, including the United States, is changing, and changing rapidly. Observational evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. Documented changes include surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; disappearing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; and rising sea level. Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. Changes in the characteristics of extreme events are particularly important for human safety, infrastructure, agriculture, water quality and quantity, and natural ecosystems. Some extremes have already become more frequent, intense, or of longer duration, and many extremes are expected to continue to increase or worsen, presenting substantial challenges. Heatwaves have become more frequent in the United States since the 1960s, while extreme cold temperatures and cold waves have become less frequent. Heavy rainfall is increasing in intensity and frequency across the United States and globally. These and other trends in severe weather are expected to continue. The Earth's climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond. As a result, global average sea levels are expected to continue to rise. This presentation provides an overview of the findings from the new assessment, with a special focus on severe weather.
About the speaker: Donald J. Wuebbles is the Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. He is also a Presidential Fellow at the University of Illinois, with the aim of helping the university system develop new initiatives in urban sustainability. From 2015 to early 2017, Dr. Wuebbles was Assistant Director with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office of the President in Washington DC. He was Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois for many years, and led the development of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment, and was its first director. Dr. Wuebbles is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry, with over 500 scientific publications related to the Earth’s climate, air quality, and the stratospheric ozone layer. He has co-authored a number of international and national scientific assessments, including several international climate assessments led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for which IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was a leader in the 2013 IPCC international assessment and the 2014 Third U.S. National Climate Assessment. More recently, he co-led the Climate Science Special Report, the 475-page first volume of the Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment published in November 2017 that assesses the science of climate change. Dr. Wuebbles has also led special assessments of the impacts of climate change on human society and ecosystems for the U.S. Midwest, the Northeast, and a special assessment for the city of Chicago. Dr. Wuebbles has received several major awards, including the Cleveland Abbe Award from the American Meteorological Society, the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is a Fellow of three major professional science societies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society.
Webinar access: Mymeeting webinar uses phone and internet. Audio is only available over the phone: dial toll-free from US or CAN: 1-877-708-1667. Enter code 7028688# For the webcast, goto www.mymeetings.com Under "Participant Join", click "Join an Event", then add conf no: 744925156. No code is needed for the web. Be sure to install the WebEx application when logging in - the temporary application works fine.
On September 12-14, 2018 in San Francisco, Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California; Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations; Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Enjoy for Cities and Climate Change; and Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, will host the Global Climate Action Summit.
The Summit will bring together thousands of leaders from government, business, and civil society from around the world to demonstrate how the tide has turned in the race against climate change, showcase climate action taking place around the world, and inspire deeper commitments from each other and from national governments. The Summit will focus on five themes: healthy energy systems, inclusive economic growth, sustainable communities, land and ocean stewardship, and transformative climate investments. Please find more information about the Summit here: https://globalclimateactionsummit.org/faq/
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate of Geosciences in collaboration with the Directorates for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, Engineering, Education and Human Resources, and Biological Sciences are looking to better understand the research priorities related to advancing understanding of the impacts of coastal environmental variability and natural hazards on populated coastal regions. This emerging effort about Coastlines and People is called CoPe.
The goal of this effort is to support Coastal Research Hubs, structured using a convergent science approach, at the nexus between coastal sustainability, human dimensions, and coastal processes to transform understanding of interactions among natural, human-built, and social systems in coastal populated environments. Research Hubs will address issues operating at multiple scales, link science, community involvement, broadening participation, and education into developing pathways to sustainability in changing coastal environments.
The NSF would like to engage the scientific community in the development of priorities related to CoPe, through three regional and one virtual, concurrently-held scoping workshops on September 26-28, 2018. The goals of the workshops are to identify the research priorities and the optimal structure for research initiatives on Coastlines and People. Apply now or check out the FAQ. This activity is supported by NSF award # 1844215.
Each year, the National Council for Science and the Environment brings together scientists, educators, policymakers, business leaders and officials at all levels of government to discuss how to use science in environmental policy and decision making. The Annual Conference provides a platform for a diverse community to learn from each other, collaborate and build long lasting relationships. This is a meeting you won't want to miss.
The 2019 Annual Conference will build upon the conversation from the previous Annual Conference, held in January 2018. Sessions will explore how systems thinking and a sustainability framework can serve society through investment in natural, built, cyber, and social infrastructure.
The Forum gathers the adaptation community to foster knowledge exchange, innovation and mutual support for a better tomorrow. We invite you to join the convening of adaptation practitioners from around the country focused on moving beyond adaptation awareness and planning to adaptation action.
Penn State is a lead academic partner with Project Drawdown, an effort to assemble peer-reviewed science to evaluate solutions that reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases and address climate change. More than 100 Penn State faculty have volunteered to help with the analysis. Penn State will host the first Drawdown International Scientific Conference on Sept. 16-18, 2019. Mark your calendar for this event.
Please join us for a free monthly webinar series beginning in November that will explore current research and applications on drought impacts. Understanding impacts helps planners, decision makers and resource managers reduce vulnerability to future droughts. The webinars, which start Nov. 6, 2013, are on Wednesdays, beginning at 1 p.m. Central time. Each will include:
- a focus on a specific effort to document drought impacts and the use of this information in decision-making
- discussion of NIDIS’ role in the emerging Impacts Community of Practice
- a chance to ask questions via chat
- other interactive elements.
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Very often projects involving sea-level rise start out with the same question - how much sea-level rise and by when? Often the processes of determining which scenarios takes a great deal of time. Additionally, different projects settle on different scenarios making it difficult to compare results between projects. The Cooperative partners have identified addressing this issue as a priority goal for 2016.
The Cooperative would like to invite experts in SLR and those who frequently work on SLR projects in the Gulf to come to collaborate in identifying recommended scenarios. The goal is a suite of recommended scenarios for use across a variety of projects as well as a brief user guide to encourage its use on the Gulf Coast.
This process will take time and instead of dealing with such a large issue with such a large group in one meeting, we are planning a series of webinars and workshops. The first webinar will happen on Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. CST, and it will be a background/kick-off webinar addressing the series goals and outlining national, regional and local scenarios.
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The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.