Headline News Archive

 Check out Path of the Panther in a Florida theater!

Drawn in by the haunting specter of the Florida panther, a wildlife photographer, veterinarians, ranchers, conservationists, and indigenous people find themselves on the front lines of an accelerating battle between forces of renewal and destruction that have pushed the Everglades to the brink of ecological collapse.

In a struggle resonating across the globe, the panther’s habitat has become an island. Its lush territory transformed into subdivisions. A paradise vanishing into thin air.

Please support this stunningly beautiful film in your local theaters.

Playing throughout Florida now.

The Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) is happy to announce the expansion of the Simple Planning Tool to Louisiana. The tool is now available for all states in the SCIPP region: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. The Simple Planning Tool assists planners, emergency managers, and decision makers in Louisiana who are assessing their long-term climate risks, both historically and in the future. The tool was primarily designed for decision makers who serve small- to medium-sized communities but may also be of interest to those who serve larger areas. The tool is now available here, or on our Tools page.

The Simple Planning Tool for Louisiana Climate Hazards is a compilation of relatively easy-to-use online interactive tools, maps, and graphs relevant to 17 hazards: 14 climate hazards and 3 non-climate hazards. Users can access and obtain locally relevant data from the provided links and instructions. It also provides information on data limitations and a state-of-the-science summary on projected future trends for each hazard. Finally, appendices include hazard definitions and descriptions, historical FEMA/presidential disaster declarations, climate change science and projection resources, and incentive and action programs for hazard risk reduction. The vast number of weather and climate tools available can be overwhelming, so this tool aims to cut through the internet clutter and point to relatively simple data tools that can be used during planning processes and in plans. 

SCIPP is one of several National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP) teams, formerly named Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments, and assists organizations with decision making that builds resilience by collaboratively producing research, tools, and knowledge that reduce weather and climate risks and impacts across the south-central U.S. Learn more about SCIPP at www.southernclimate.org.

by Renee Cho
January 12, 2023

The favored refrain of climate deniers and those who oppose climate policies is that “the science is not settled.” To some degree, this is true. Climate scientists are still uncertain about a number of phenomena. But it is the nature of science to never be settled — science is always a work in progress, constantly refining its ideas as new information arrives.

Certain evidence, however, is clear: global temperatures are rising, and humans are playing a role in it. And just because scientists are uncertain about some other areas, does not negate what they are sure about.

What’s certain and what’s not
Reputable climate scientists around the world are in almost unanimous agreement that human influences have warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land and that the speed of the changing climate exceeds what can be attributed to natural variability. They are also virtually certain that this warming has been driven by the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels. Climate scientists are highly confident about these things because of fundamental principles of physics, chemistry, and biology; millions of observations over the last 150 years; studies of ice cores, fossil corals, ocean sediments, and tree rings that reveal the natural influences on climate; and climate models.

Despite this evidence, “In the climate change field, with its countless socioecological factors and interdependent systems, its known unknowns and unknown unknowns, deep uncertainty abounds,” said the World Resources Institute. The uncertainties are due to an incomplete understanding of Earth’s systems and their interactions; natural variability in the climate system; the limitations of climate models; bias; and measurement errors from imprecise observational instruments. In addition, there is great uncertainty about how the climate will be affected by humans and the demographic, economic, technical, and political developments of the future.

Full article available here

Join NNOCCI’s Governing Council!

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open to join NNOCCI’s Governing Council, a group of committees actively engaged in sustaining, deepening and expanding NNOCCI’s work. We are currently recruiting for a variety of volunteer positions to join our committees, as well as a position within our Board of Directors:

• Vice President
• Communications
• Impact and Evaluation
• JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion)
• Membership Engagement
• Science
• Training

Positions are open to all.

For full position descriptions, visit NNOCCI Governing Council Position Description

To apply, visit NNOCCI Governing Council Application

Applications are due by February 15th, 2023 @ 3 PM ET / 12 PM PT

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions.

According to NOAA scientists, the global surface temperature for 2022 was the sixth highest since record keeping began in 1880. In a separate analysis of global temperature data also released today, NASA ranks 2022 as the fifth-warmest year on record, tying with 2015. Analysis from the Copernicus program ranked 2022 as the fifth-warmest year on record. December’s global surface temperature was the eighth highest in the 143-year record, according to NOAA.

2022 was the 5th warmest year on record for Florida.

This summary from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information is part of the suite of climate services that NOAA provides to government, business, academia, and the public to support informed decision-making.

Details and information on global climate and temperature, rainfall, snow, and sea ice are available on NOAA's Assessing the Global Climate in 2022 webpage.

Grants up to $4,000 available to Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Consortium member universities

ORAU’s FY 2023 Innovation Partnerships Program (formerly Events Sponsorship Grant Program) is being restructured to build stronger relationships between university members and ORAU subject matter experts. These updates are designed to focus on research and education topics that align well with ORAU’s expertise and current priorities.

Applications must be focused on one or more of the FY 2023 ORAU core focus areas.
An ORAU subject matter expert will serve as a collaborator with the university PI.

The goal of this grant program change is to drive new opportunities for university consortium members and ORAU experts to formulate meaningful collaborations.

Innovation Partnerships grant applications are currently being accepted and the application window will remain open throughout the fiscal year depending on available funds.

Each member university is limited to one award per fiscal year. Up to $4,000 may be requested to support an in-person or virtual event that involves participants from more than one ORAU member institution, including students. Innovation Partnership applications should focus on focused workshops/conferences that highlight your university’s strategic STEM research and education growth areas, and where collaborations with other member universities would add value. We are specifically interested in events that can bring more thought leadership in building a national strategy for STEM education and workforce development. Member universities are encouraged to collaborate around this topic in anticipation of federal funding initiatives.

Application details available here

Join the first interdisciplinary graduate program in the nation, Master of Science in Climate and Health (U-MSCH), at UM. This program trains future generations of clinicians, professionals, researchers, meteorologists, planners, decision-makers and leaders to address the 21st century challenges of the health effects of climate, climate change, weather patterns and weather anomalies (C2W2). The program will provide critical interdisciplinary training needed to:

• understand and investigate an intricate relationship between health and climate, and
• tease out present and future disease and disability burden of C2W2 and its management

Now, we are accepting applications for our Master of Science in Climate and Health Program for the fall of 2023 at the University of Miami.

Mission: Provide students with the state-of-the-art interdisciplinary training in understanding, characterizing and managing the health effects of climate, climate change, weather and weather anomalies (C2W2).
Duration: Two-year Master’s Degree
Tracks:

• Toxicology (pre-med)
• Public Health Sciences
• Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
• Climate and Health - Analytical

Opportunities to pursue research with interdisciplinary faculty members from five colleges
Limited research assistantships may be available

Program details and application information available on the UM Climate & Health website

The U.S. Global Change Research Program is expected to release the first-ever U.S. National Nature Assessment in 2026.

The National Nature Assessment will draw on expertise from the Federal Government, Indigenous communities, academia, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. The Assessment team will hold an array of public engagement opportunities to ensure the report answers questions that are important to every American’s life, and is informed by the best available evidence. Public comments are open through March 31, 2023.

Video introduction

“Fjords punch far above their weight in their ability to pull out a lot of carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the mud,” said Brad Rosenheim, geological oceanography professor and paleoclimate expert at the USF College of Marine Science, who explained that scientists only learned of this small-but-mighty role recently. In 2015, an ocean geochemist and professor at the University of Florida, Thomas Bianchi, pioneered a Nature Geosciences study, with his graduate student at the time, Richard Smith (now at Global Aquatic Research LLC), that first opened scientists’ eyes to the powerful role that fjords play in global carbon storage, he said.

Full article available on USF's College of Marine Science website

The RCAP 3.0 was developed with the guidance of more than 150 subject matter experts as well as with the input of community members and stakeholders. It outlines goals, recommendations and supporting strategies across 11 focal areas to advance the objectives of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to a 2005 baseline, and of strengthening the adaptive capacity and climate resilience of the region's communities, institutions and economy. 

First developed in 2012, the RCAP is a voluntary framework designed to align, guide and support the acceleration of local and regional climate action in Southeast Florida to realize a healthy, prosperous, more equitable and resilient, low-carbon region.

VIEW & DOWNLOAD THE RCAP 3.0

Florida State University has launched a new program to jumpstart research opportunities addressing sustainability and climate change issues.

The program will award grants of up to $150,000, with a total of $1 million available in the 2022-2023 academic year. Interdisciplinary and collaborative proposals are strongly encouraged. The goal is to act as a catalyst for further work on these topics. With that in mind, recipients are expected to pursue external grant funding at the conclusion of their projects.

Research proposals can focus on any aspect of sustainability, including the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. They can also deal with issues around climate change, such as mitigation, risk assessment and management, adaptation, resilience and more.

Read the news piece on FSU's University News website.

Visit the program website for more information. Proposal submissions from faculty will be accepted through Feb. 9, 2023. Award decisions will be made in April 2023.

Hurricane Ian left behind a staggering trail of damage to communities and the environment in southwest Florida. A steady stream of response and recovery efforts, from emergency rescues to rebuilding of critical infrastructure, has been underway since the storm brought record breaking winds and rainfall. Alongside these efforts, the UF Center for Coastal Solutions has embarked upon a collaborative effort to understand how the hurricane affected water quality and ecosystems in the region.

Quickly after landfall, the CCS and partners Captains for Clean Water, Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership (CHNEP), Charlotte County, South Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), Sarasota Bay Estuary, and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) mobilized to sample coastal waters for harmful algae, nutrients, oxygen, and fecal indicator bacteria. 

These data are important for estimating the amount and types of pollutants that entered the estuary during the storm and understanding their impacts on human and ecological health. Beyond directly sampling and analyzing water quality, the CCS launched a post-Ian water quality working group involving over 15 organizations including local, state, and national agencies, and environmental organizations.  

This valuable work to assess water safety is funded in part by the US Army Corps of Engineers and will continue until April 2023.  

The water sampling team working off of Sanibel Island, left to right: UF CCS Director, Christine Angelini, Ph.D.,
SCCF Water Quality Technician Sierra Greene, and CCS Field Technician Adam Hymel

Read more here

By Thomas Ruppert

Florida’s coastal communities face unprecedented challenges with sea-level rise (SLR) as it permanently inundates areas and exacerbates typical coastal hazards. SLR creates novel legal and financial challenges as it impacts infrastructure for which local governments have legal and financial responsibilities. These challenges call for equally novel planning and policy development; such novel thinking, legal research, and drafting often exceed the capacities of small- and medium-sized local governments that frequently lack the staff bandwidth and specialization to independently conduct such work.

Florida Sea Grant (FSG) has, since 2012, been collaborating with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council (ECFRPC) to provide legal and policy research, conduct trainings and outreach, and draft legal language for small- and medium-sized communities on Florida’s east central coast. The novel approaches developed by FSG have led the way for small- and medium-sized local governments in the region through approaches and planning policies that focus on grounding today’s policy and actions in long-term visions balancing desires for coastal protection and infrastructure services with the fiscal and physical realities of our changing coast. Areas of focus include comprehensive plan language seeking to minimize potentially crippling legal and fiscal liabilities for infrastructure and shifting the focus of infrastructure services from reactive to specific property owner complaints to proactive based on current and future scenarios focused on infrastructure services as part of a system serving communities of people. As part of the ECFRPC’s Regional Resiliency Collaborative and co-developer of the ECFRPC-led “Regional Resilience Action Plan,” FSG  has been instrumental in developing policies and working with the ECFRPC to disseminate them.

FSG and Thomas Ruppert served as a driving force in the City of Satellite Beach’s adoption of Adaptation Action Areas language in their comprehensive plan—the first municipality in Florida to do so. In Ordinance 1160, Satellite Beach became the first municipality we are aware of in Florida to explicitly state in its land development code that its policies seek “to promote a managed retreat from the sensitive ocean bluff and Erosion Adaptation Action Areas.”[1] This represents a shift away from hard armoring of our coastlines and recognition of a changing future. Satellite Beach approved Ordinance 1194 on March 17, 2021. This ordinance adopted virtually verbatim extensive FSG comprehensive plan recommendations. Ordinance 1194 modified Satellite Beach’s Comprehensive Plan elements for Infrastructure, Coastal Management, Intergovernmental Coordination, Capital Improvements, and Future Land Use.  As of January 2022, at least nine additional local governments in the ECFRPC’s region have adopted language drafted by FSG, edited by FSG, or drafted by the ECFRPC with input from FSG, including: Brevard County, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Melbourne Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Oak Hill, Rockledge, Titusville, and Volusia County. As part of the ECFRPC’s “Regional Resilience Collaborative,” more local governments in the area are expected to likely adopt language based on the resilience work of FSG and ECFRPC. In September of 2022, Satellite Beach adopted an ordinance and supporting documents created by FSG to integrate additional recommendations on notice of sea-level rise to permit applicants. FSG continues to collaborate with Satellite Beach and partners to move forward resilience in Satellite Beach and the many communities emulating Satellite Beach’s approach.

Florida Sea Grant is leading the way in developing holistic legal and planning examples for small- to medium-sized local governments attempting to balance local government fiscal constraints and the realities of sea-level rise through adaptations grounded in long-term visions informing short-, medium-, and long-term actions designed to maximize the quality of life, economic outlook, and safety of coastal governments on our changing coastline. Local governments are responding by adopting FSG-drafted/inspired language into their comprehensive planning for resilience and into ordinances. 

On Day One of the Forum, FEMA’s Acting Deputy Administrator for Resilience Victoria Salinas said that the RNPN represents the “whole community” because of the diverse array of invested community leaders from across the nation. Throughout the Forum, thousands of people joined the conversations, underscoring keen interest to further resilience.

In case you missed any of the Forum presentations, here are videos from each day:

Day 1 – Social Cohesion: Making Access, Inclusion, and Equity Priorities in Resilience
Day 2 – Making Resilience Priorities Complementary
Day 3 – Inclusive Design: Building a Sense of Resilient Belonging
Day 4 – Voices of Inclusive Resilience

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 will be the formal kickoff of the Stories of Resilience initiative. Please save the date to learn more about Stories of Resilience and why storytelling is a critical tool for building community resilience.

Three Florida Climate Institute partners will participate in the spring 2023 studio to reimagine NCF. Modeled after two multi-university, multi-disciplinary challenges in the Northeast, Envision Resilience, which studied Nantucket, MA and Narragansett Bay, RI, the New College Challenge aims to build partnerships with students, leaders from major statewide and national universities, and experts across key industries. These thought leaders will address the social, economic and environmental challenges that face New College and present a hopeful vision for the future.

More info at https://www.ncf.edu/Challenge/