Climate Change Institute

The Portland Press Herald published a feature story about Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist and assistant professor with a joint appointment in University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, and his work involving the UMaine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer. “It’s a difficult thing to do,” Birkel said. “You have to […]

About 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, glaciers that pushed arctic plant life across the northern hemisphere receded and left some behind on mountain tops in the Northeastern U.S. The alpine plants — now far away from their original tundra habitats — have endured millenia of extreme seasonal climate changes […]

Listen Now   Paul Mayewski, polar explorer and Director of the University of Maine’s 50-year-old Climate Change Institute weighs in on what it’s like to be a climate expert these days when everyone is a climate expert. And Mark Dunlea shares a peek at his new book “Putting Out the Planetary Fire, An Introduction to […]

Scientific American spoke to Jacquelyn Gill, associate professor of paleoecology and plant ecology with the University of Maine School of Biology and Ecology and Climate Change Institute, about new research into the famed La Brea Tar Pits published on Aug. 17 in Science. “We know that in modern systems, extinction is very rarely unicausal. You […]

Maine Public interviewed Jacquelyn Gill, associate professor of paleoecology & plant ecology with the University of Maine School of Biology and Ecology and Climate Change Institute, about a Montana case where the judge sided with 16 young plaintiffs in their landmark court case against the state over its climate policies. “They are getting inroads into […]

The Bangor Daily News spoke to Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist and assistant professor with a joint appointment in University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, and David Handley, vegetable and small fruit specialist at Extension, about how a volcanic eruption in Tonga 18 months ago is impacting Maine growing seasons. […]

The Associated Press cited the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer in reporting how Tuesday, Aug. 8 was the first day since July 2 in which the global average temperature fell below the record-breaking 16.92 degrees Celsius. According to AP, that means “that Earth just spent 36 days straight above the previous hottest […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted $1.5 million to the University of Maine and collaborators to carry out a series of programs that will educate and aid farmers in climate adaptation and mitigation. Agricultural producers anticipate an onslaught of challenges due to climate change, such as increases in flooding, drought, pest and disease […]

In an article about Antarctica’s rapidly melting ice, Newsweek cited data from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer from July 19 showing that there is almost 2 million square kilometers (about 772,000 square miles) less sea ice in Antarctica compared to the same point last year. Salon cited the Newsweek report.

The Associated Press, Politico, The Economist and Carbon Brief cited calculations from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer about July 2023 heat waves. The Climate Reanalyzer data show that the global average temperature has been hotter in 22 of the first 24 days of July than on any other single day recorded. Spectrum […]