Climate Change

Climate change seems to be a hot topic in politics and science. Last April, Extension members from all over the country came together to talk about their role in this issue. Joining me today is Roslynn McCann, Sustainable Community Specialists with USU Extension. 

Political scientists Erika Allen Wolters and Brent Steel have written that the United States is experiencing a political era in which facts are fluid and the truth is subjective, and that the consequences of ideology trumping science can be devastating. And they wrote that back in 2017. This week we’ll talk to them about how their fears have shifted in the past four years.

Chase Bank is receiving an April Fool's greeting today from Boise youths, who are calling the institution out for its investment in fossil fuels.

President Joe Biden released a package of executive orders this week designed to fight climate change, curb pollution, conserve natural resources and address environmental justice.

Simon Wang is Professor of Climate Dynamics and Assistant Director of the Utah Climate Center at Utah State University. Dr. Wang studies climate variability, weather process, extreme events, and long-term prediction. He recently gave a presentation to news reporters for a virtual event organized by InsideClimate News, titled “Wildfire, Heatwaves, Snowpack and Floods: Climate Change in the Mountain West.”

The recipe for restoring the West's Sagebrush Sea could involve pasta makers. A project stewing in Idaho and four other western states is testing a new method for replanting sagebrush and other native brunchgrasses.

We’re talking about fires and fossils, sea butterflies and stonehenge, and parasitic plants and saving the planet — well, saving ourselves, anyway. Our guests are researchers from across the nation with a diversity of expertise.

This week on Undisciplined, we’re talking about the long-lost woolly rhinoceros, Vikings, smallpox, and innovations in playground equipment. With a list of subjects that diverse, you might have guessed that the monthly science news round-up is back – and it is.

 A new project is showing the West how much it will heat up as temperatures continue to rise.

New research in South America links dinosaur diversification with a sudden climate change event. How does “sudden” climate change in the Triassic geologic time, over 230 million years ago, compare with modern climate change? 

How long has coal burning been responsible for climate change? If right now you are trying to remember when the industrial revolution began, that’s a completely reasonable guess. But according to some recent research, it’s not even close. The correct answer, the researchers say, is 250 million years ago. How can that be?

As lawmakers returned to the Capitol this week, they found copies of The Utah Roadmap, a paper aimed at developing policies — or mileposts — to improve air quality and address changing climate. 

Over 70% of Americans—and two-thirds of Utahns—think that climate change is happening. Research led by Dr. Peter Howe reveals this statistic, along with much more detailed data about how Americans think about climate change from the national to the local level.

Yoram Bauman is the world’s first and only stand-up economist. He is co-author of the “Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change” and the two volume “Cartoon Introduction to Economics,” and the 1998 book “Tax Shift,” which helped inspire the revenue-neutral carbon tax in British Columbia. He is campaign co-chair for the new Clean the Darn Air initiative, which supporters are working to get on the ballot in Utah in 2020.

Skier and debut author Ayja Bounous explores threats to the winters and watershed in the face of climate change and the far–reaching impacts of a diminishing snowpack on the American West—not only from ecological and economic perspectives, but also in regard to emotional and psychological health, as she realizes how deeply her personal relationships are tied to the snow–covered mountains of Utah's Wasatch range.

Soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, accounting for over three times more carbon than all plants on earth. According to a researcher who specializes in environmental issues, this could make it a key tool in the fight against climate change.

"Eight years ago, Bob Inglis ran for a seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives and didn’t even make it out of the Republican primary. He lost by nearly 3 to 1. His estrangement from South Carolina voters ran deep, friends-gone-missing and allies-turned-enemies deep.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations organization for evaluating and presenting the science related to climate change, released a comprehensive report last week for public officials around the world on the relationship between the land and climate.  The organization provides the world’s governments with scientific assessments to develop climate policies.

For more than a year now, we've been bringing together researchers from different disciplines in our never-ending search to build interdisciplinary connections. That's a lot of researchers, who are all doing a lot of really fascinating work — but we haven't had a paleontologist on our program yet. So today, that's going to change. 

There's no way we could let this month pass us by without talking about the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time: the moon landing. But don't worry, we won't get stuck in the past. 

Over 70% of Americans—and two-thirds of Utahns—think that climate change is happening. Research led by Dr. Peter Howe reveals this statistic, along with much more detailed data about how Americans think about climate change from the national to the local level. Drawing from large surveys of the American public, Dr. Howe’s research has developed statistical methods to map public opinion, risk perceptions, and responses in every state, county, and even neighborhood across the country.

Counting the number of tree rings tells us how old the tree is but new research reveals how these rings can tell us more about historic winter climates. 

Scientists have found that climate change impacts the timing of early spring vegetation growth and bird migration. New research investigates if earlier bird migration to the Arctic results in lower quality vegetation.   

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gas emissions are the most significant driver of global climate change. Utah State University is making changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral within the next 13 years.

This week on UnDisciplined, we're talking about some pretty scary things. 

This week on UnDisciplined, we're gathering the gang for another science news round-up. 

As we talk about some of the biggest stories in science over the past few weeks, we'll be joined by a biomedical researcher, a wildland ecologist and an experimental psychologist. 

Former Utah State University football star Torrey Green is sentenced to 26-years-to-life in prison for sexual assaults. Sen.

Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel is Director of Climate Science for the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She will be in Utah later this week for events in Salt Lake City and Ogden. She says we can adapt to and reduce risks from changing weather patterns and other consequences of releasing heat-trapping emissions to the atmosphere, and that we can switch to a lower emissions trajectory. Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel will give us specific examples for Utah on the program today.

In their new book “Breakpoint: Reckoning with America's Environmental Crises,” eminent ecologist Jeremy B. C. Jackson and award-winning journalist Steve Chapple examine the looming threats from recent hurricanes and fires, industrial agriculture, river mismanagement, extreme weather events, drought, and rising sea levels that, they say, are pushing the country toward the breaking point of ecological and economic collapse.

A recent article in the online magazine Yale Environment 360 is headlined “The West’s Great River Hits Its Limits: Will the Colorado Run Dry?” And the sub-headline: “As the Southwest faces rapid growth and unrelenting drought, the Colorado River is in crisis, with too many demands on its diminishing flow. Now those who depend on the river must confront the hard reality that their supply of Colorado water may be cut off.”