Climate Change Institute

University of Maine graduate students are partnering with schools across Maine to host World Climate Interactive Negotiation Simulation (WCS) activities. The simulation activity was developed by the nongovernmental organization Climate Interactive and involves a role play in which participants act as country delegates and work together to negotiate a global climate agreement. The simulation emulates […]

Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Volume 166, 30 December 2018, Pages 251-258 K. R. Miner, C. Bogdal, P. Pavlova, C. Steinlin, and K. J. Kreutz Abstract Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are entrained within glaciers globally, reemerging in many alpine ecosystems. Despite available data on POP flux from glaciers, a study of human health risk caused by POPs released in glacial […]

Business Insider and Broadway World reported the short documentary series “Let Science Speak” premiered Sept. 20 during the Tribeca TV Festival. The six-part series aims to inform viewers about the importance of science, and to humanize scientists and show how their work is connected to relatable personal values like innovation and civic duty, the articles […]

Sean Birkel, Paul Mayewski, Kirk Maasch, Andrei Kurbatov, and Bradfield Lyon npj Climate and Atmospheric Science volume 1, Article number: 24 (2018) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-018-0036-6 The Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) is a 60–70 year pattern of sea-surface temperature (SST) variability in the North Atlantic commonly ascribed to internal ocean dynamics and changes in northward heat transport. Recent modeling studies, however, […]

Alexander More, a historian and climate scientist at Harvard University and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, was quoted in the New York Times article, “Europe’s triumphs and troubles are written in Swiss ice.” As plague swept through Europe in the mid-1300s, wiping out more than a third of the region’s population, […]

K.M. Schild, C.E. Renshaw, D.I, Benn, A. Luckman, R.L. Hawley, P. How, L. Trusel, F.R. Cottier, A. Pramanik, and N.R.J. Hulton. First published: 22 August 2018 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004520 Abstract Tidewater glacier calving provides the most direct mechanism of ice transfer from land to the ocean. However, the physical melt processes influencing calving remain challenging to constrain. In […]

The climatic and cultural history of El Niño in Ancient Peru will be the focus of the 17th annual Geddes W. Simpson Lecture at the University of Maine on Sept. 19. Daniel Sandweiss, a UMaine professor of anthropology and climate studies, will give a lecture titled “Climate, Catastrophe, Collapse? Using Climatic and Cultural History to […]

WVII (Channel 7) quoted Ivan Fernandez, a professor of soil science and forest resources and a cooperating professor in the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, in an report on a citizens’ hearing about air quality. The hearing, “Maine Speaks on Climate and Cars,” was held by the Natural Resources Council of Maine […]

The Bangor Daily News quoted Sean Birkel, Maine’s state climatologist and a research assistant professor at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute, in the article, “Maine’s fall foliage is popping up early this year.” Some trees in Maine are already changing color, which could be the result of drought putting the trees under stress, […]

The Falmouth Enterprise reports George Jacobson, a professor emeritus of biology, ecology and climate change at the University of Maine, will speak at a fall gardening forum in Cape Cod. The Master Gardener Association of Cape Cod will host the event at the Harwich Community Center in Harwich, Massachusetts from 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. […]