Welcome to our New Members!

Thank you for your support and participation!

FCI Events

FCI Faculty Seminar:

April 7, 2011. 1:00 pm-2:00 pm

Location: UF's Frazier Rogers Hall, in room 122.

Note: The seminar will be broadcast live via Polycom to FSU-COAPS, in room 220.

1:00 pm 

Speaker:  Andrea Dutton, UF - Department of Geological Sciences

Title: Empirical Constraints on Future Sea Level Rise: Sea Level and Ice Sheet Dynamics During Warm Interglacial Periods

1:30 pm

Speaker: Francis E. "Jack" Putz, UF - Department of Biology  

Title: Sustainability Tropical Forests with forestry 

FCI Special Guest Seminar:

April 14, 2011, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm 

Location: FSU-COAPS, in room 220.

Note: The seminar will be broadcast live via Polycom to UF's Frazier Rogers Hall, in room 122.

Speaker:   Ben Kirtman, University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Professor of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography

Title:  Impact of Ocean Model Resolution on CCSM Climate Simulations 

Symposium:

May 24-27, 2011

Location: Orlando, FL.

Note: CIMR (pronounced "simmer") will emphasize the challenges of applying climate information and predictions at local and regional levels, for regions and locations from around the world.  

Climate Information for Managing Risks Symposium

Other Events

April 14-15, 2011:

Location: Washington, DC

Developing Science, Technology, and Innovation Indicators for the Future 

April 18-19, 2011:

Location: Washington, DC 

Redesigning the Commercial Buildings and Residential Energy Consumption Surveys of the Energy Information Administration  

April 27-28, 2011:

Location: Boulder, CO

A National Strategy for Advancing Climate Modeling

May 2-4, 2011:

Location: Washington, DC  

A Sustainability Challenge: Food Secuirty for All  

May 16-27, 2011:
Location: New York, NY

Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health at Columbia University 

June 15-July 1, 2011 (Application deadline: March 11, 2011):

Location: Ashville, NC

Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-NC announcing Summer Institute on Climate Change

June 23-26, 2011:  

Location: The University of Vermont - Burlington, VT 

Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences announcing the AESS's 2011 Annual Meeting and Conference: "Confronting Complexity" 

October 22-29, 2011 (Application Deadline: March 7, 2011)

Location: La Foret Conference and Retreat Center Colorado Springs, CO

DISCCRS VI Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Symposium

Dedicated to the memory of Stephen H. Schneider.   

October 24-28, 2011:

Location: Denver, CO 

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) will host a major Open Science Conference (OSC) in October 2011 in Denver with the title "Climate Research in Service to Society".

The conference aims to attract the world's experts to provide a unique synthesis of current research findings on climate variability and change, to identify the most urgent scientific issues and research challenges, and to ascertain how the WCRP can best facilitate research and develop partnerships critical for progress in the future.    

November 8-11, 2011:

Location: Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia 

The 1st International Conference Energy & Meteorology (ICEM) 2011 will be held in Australia, with the pre-Conference Seminar "Energy & Meteorology: Fundamentals and Challenges" and Welcome Reception on Monday, 7 November 2011.

Submit an abstract for an oral or a poster presentation to be part of the four-day programme - the ICEM is calling for abstracts to discuss the Conference-s themes:

- State-of-the-Science and Challenges in Weather & Climate for Energy

- Energy Generation - including Renewables and Biofuels

- Energy Resource Assessment, Planning, Forecasting and Storage

- Energy Extraction, Transportation, Transmission and Distribution

- Energy Demand, Smart Grids, Finance and Insurance

Abstracts are to be submitted online via the ICEM 2011 website: http://www.icem2011.org/abstracts.html before Close of Business Friday, 20 May 2011.  

Recent Publications

Recent Presentations

FCI Special Guest Seminar - March 22, 2011 - Gainesville, FL:

Soccolow, R.: How Would We Act If We Took Climate Change Seriously?

Dr. Norman Breuer, courtesy faculty at the University of Florida from RSMAS at the University of Miami, gave a climate change talk in Spanish from Paraguay.  This initiative is sponsored by PepsiCo International and the Young Americas Business Trust, an affiliate of the Organization of American States. Dr. Breuer reached 120 college students in 10 different Latin American countries in this webinar (March 22, 2011) discussing climate change and its impact on the environment.  

FCI Faculty Seminar - March 24, 2011 - Tallahassee, FL:

Fuelberg. H.: Transport of Asian Biomass Burning Emissions to the Arctic-Climatological Considerations

FCI Faculty Seminar - March 24, 2011 - Tallahassee, FL:
Dewar, W.: Inviscid Dissipation in Ocean Climate Models

FCI Distinguished Scholar Seminar - March 31, 2011 - Gainesville, FL: 

Koblinsky, C.: Climate Information in the Public Interest: Building the Network

Other News

New Commission Confronts Threats to Food Security from Climate Change:

Experts from Six Continents are Set to Produce Policy Recommendations Boosting Food Production in Face of Harsher Climates, Increasing Populations,Scarce Resources.

http://ccafs.cgiar.org/content/commission/press-room 

New report, by Lynn Scarlett and James Boyd: 

"Ecosystem Services: Quantification, Policy Applications, and Current Federal Capabilities".

The study describes existing federal policies that permit or promote ecosystem services analysis, management, investments, and markets. 

Our survey discusses: 1) current programs that stimulate or support the measurement of ecosystem services; 2) existing federal drivers of ecosystem services analysis; and 3) programs that stimulate investment in ecosystem services. Understanding existing capacity is important to federal and other leaders who see opportunities for environmental policy innovations-such as payments, markets, and management practices-based on ecological wealth and services.

EPA is releasing a final report titled:  

"Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case Studies of Water Utility Practices". 

This report was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment's Global Climate Research Staff in the Office of Research and Development.

The approaches taken by the different utilities to assess their vulnerability to climate change range from sophisticated environmental modeling and scenario analysis to qualitative methods based on reviews of available literature. The case studies illustrate different approaches that reflect specific local needs and conditions, existing vulnerabilities, local partnerships, and available information about climate change.

Outstanding Student Paper Award: 

Congratulations to Syewoon Hwang for receiving an Outstanding Student Paper Award from the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union for his oral presentation entitled "Development of Spatiotemporal Bias-Correction Techniques for Downscaling GCM Predictions" at the Fall 2010 meeting.
This work is being conducted for Tampa Bay Water and is a part of the Water Utility Climate Alliance Piloting Utility Model Applications project.

UF Receives Top Honors for Sustainability:  

Using data collected from university Web sites during spring 2010, the Roberts Environmental Center (REC) at Claremont McKenna College has released an analysis of the corporate environmental and social sustainability reporting of the 50 top national universities. Leading the list with an "A+" is the University of Florida, followed by Georgetown, the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt, all of which received an "A" rating. The study analyzes voluntary environmental and social reporting by national universities. The full, 85-page report is available online: http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp

Nature Climate Change:

We announced in our February 2011 edition that Nature Climate Change would be available in print in April 2011: the Volume 1, Number 1 was released this month.  

The new journal aims to be the world's leading research journal for documenting new scientific discoveries about how we will experience and respond to the chanllenges of a changing climate.

FCI News archive:

Please find the previous News editions in our  archive section. The archive page is also available under "Quick Links" (column to the left).

Opportunities

Partners of the Americas' Climate Change Fellows Program builds on decades of sustained programs that connect people, institutions and communities to serve and to change lives across the hemisphere. Throughout 2011, professionals from the United States and Colombia will participate in fellowships that harness the power of citizen diplomacy and link it to long-term engagement around climate change issues that affect multiple communities. Fellows will become part of an extensive network of Partners' volunteers, Partners' exchange alumni, and collaborating institutions that boasts more than 45 years of people to people engagement across cultures and regions. The program has three main goals:

- Build sustainable relationships with professionals and organizations in diverse communities  around the issue of climate change.

- Have the opportunity to share their professional expertise and continue their professional development through their fellowship.

- Strengthen the capacity of their communities to more effectively mitigate climate change impacts.  

The deadline is  April 22nd. All applications can be sent to: climatechange@partners.net. 

Informational Call:

Because of the many questions the Office has been receiving, they will be holding an informational call-in this Friday, April 8^th at 3PM. They highly encourage you to participate! They will be answering questions about the program and Colombia as well.

The number to call in is:

Conference Dial-in Number: (712)775-7000

Participant Access Code: 853454#

Please RSVP to kmayorga@partners.net if you plan to participate.

The Florida Climate Institute with Jack Putz and Claudia Romero  

will be hosting a Climate Change Fellow, Ferney Padilla, at the University of Florida from April 7 to May 28. Jack and Claudia are leading a major program and Ferney Padilla will be working with them on their REDD group.

USDA invests $60M in 3 new research projects on effects of climate change on crops and forests. 

The federal government is investing $60 million in three major studies on the effects of climate change on crops and forests to help ensure farmers and foresters can continue producing food and timber while trying to limit the impact of a changing environment.

The three studies take a new approach to crop and climate research by bringing together researchers from a wide variety of fields and encouraging them to find solutions appropriate to specific geographic areas. One study will focus on Midwestern corn, another on wheat in the Northwest and a third on Southern pine forests.