Welcome!
The Rutgers Climate Institute is a University-wide effort to address one of the most important issues of our time through research, education and outreach. The Institute draws upon strengths in many departments at Rutgers by facilitating collaboration across a broad range of disciplines in the natural, social and policy sciences.
What's New?
Global Climate Change and Inequality: Local to Global Perspectives
Friday, April 10, 2015, Rutgers College Avenue Student Center. This event is free and open to the public but registration is recommended.
This symposium will explore across disciplines the state-of-the-art thinking and research on the problem of inequality linked to expected global climate change and related environmental disasters that occur in different locations and cultures. Since some groups, communities, and nations will be much more vulnerable than others to a changing climate, a fundamental task ahead for scientists and others rests on better understanding who is likely to be affected by a changing climate and related disasters, in what ways they will be most vulnerable, and how might those vulnerabilities be addressed through various social actions, including policies and planning. Also relevant are the social consequences of mitigation policies and other efforts to reduce climate change. If communities and nations are to remain vibrant and resilient, conscious and concerted efforts will be needed to make sure everyone is valued and no one is left behind.
Rutgers Sponsors: First 100 Days initiative; Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs; Rutgers Climate Institute; Department of Geography (School of Arts and Sciences); Department of Human Ecology (School of Environmental and Biological Sciences);Department of Sociology (School of Arts and Sciences).
Complete information and a link to Registration here.
News in February 2015
Research by RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp shows that sea levels are rising at rates faster now than ever before in human history.. Coastal regions are especially vulnerable. Projected sea-level rise in the 21st century could double average annual losses for New Jersey due to damage by coastal storms. Watch an interview with RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp here. Read his publications on sea-level here.
Resources for the Future, the New York Times, and Stanford University have collaborated to conduct a survey on American attitudes toward climate change and regulation. The Times has also published a series of articles that explore the demographic patterns in respondents' answers. One result is that Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to view global warming as a problem that affects them personally. It also found that they are more likely to support policies, such as taxes and regulations on greenhouse gas pollution, aimed at curbing it. View the articles and a breakdown of the survey's questions and results here.
In a study published in IOPscience, “Evidence for a wavier jet stream in response to rapid Arctic warming”, RCI Affiliate Jennifer Francis links the wavy jet stream to a warming Arctic. The results of the study suggest that as the Arctic continues to warm faster than elsewhere in response to rising greenhouse-gas concentrations, the frequency of extreme weather events caused by persistent jet-stream patterns will increase. Read the study here and and article about the study here.
Participants in an NJ Spotlight Roundtable in Trenton on February 13, 2015 predicted that climate change will have an adverse affect on a wide range of sectors in New Jersey including agriculture, coastal communities, infrastructure, public health, and water resources. The roundtable was sponsored by the New Jersey Climate Adaption Alliance (NJCAA) which is facilitated by RCI Associate Director, Marjorie Kaplan and RCI Affiliate, Jeanne Herb. NJCAA recommendations on climate preparedness actions are set forth in a report released in July. Read coverage of the Roundtable event here.
As part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan Virtual Climate Resilience Toolkit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the Climate Adjustment Tool for EPA's Stormwater Management Model - a downloadable online stormwater simulation model. The tool enables users to add climate projections based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's climate change scenarios to existing simulations to determine the quality of water traveling through traditional infrastructure - a system of gutters, storm drains, pipes, channels, collection tanks and storage devices.
The NYC Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report was released in February 2015. RCI Co-director Robin Leichenko is a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change. RCI Affiliate Jaime Madrigano contributed to the report via the NPCC2 Work Group on health. RCI Affiliates Robert Kopp and Ken Miller served as expert reviewers. Read it here.
Droughts in the U.S. Southwest and Central Plains could be drier and longer than drought conditions seen in those regions during the past 1,000 years, a new NASA study shows. The study in the journal Science Advances, found continued increases in human-produced greenhouse gas emissions drives up the risk of severe droughts in these regions. Read about it in the New York Times and on NASA’s webpage.
Qizhong Guo, RCI Affiliate, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2.72 million over two years. The project titled Strengthening Marshes Creek Through Green and Grey Infrastructure, is being supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop and implement strategies to mitigate coastal flooding in 190 acres of saltmarsh adjacent in Marshes Creek which feeds into the Rahway River. Learn more about Professor Guo here and the project here.
RCI Affiliate Alan Robock was interviewed in an article in the Washington Post on geo-engineering. Geoengineering could mean tiny particles of sulfur dioxide being sprayed into the upper atmosphere, creating a thin haze that cools the earth. Many scientists say that is just a short term fix. Geoengineering is an especially hot topic since the National Academies have released their reports on geoengineering.
In February 2015, President Obama released The National Security Strategy (NSS) to Congress, citing climate change as among one of the 8 top strategic risks to the United States. The NSS States, “Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water.” Read more about the National Security Strategy here.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance 2015 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook released. Find the factbook here. Among some of factbook’s finding: since 2007, the United States overall has seen nearly $ 400 billion in clean energy investment US carbon emissions from the energy sector dropped 9%, and US natural gas production rose 25%. Read more about it in the Washington Post here.
The Risky Business project released its Heat in the Heartland: Climate Change and Economic Reisk in the Midwest. RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp co-led the underlying technical analysis that contributed to the Midwest Chapter of the project. Read more about it in the New York Times here.
RCI Affiliate Malin Pinsky is co-author of a recent study published in Science, “Marine defaunation: Animal loss in the global ocean” comparing rates of marine extinctions to terrestrial extinctions, including spatial patterns and vulnerability. Read about the report and its findings in this New York Times article. Read about it in the Daily Targum here.
RCI Affiliate and Rutgers Climate Institute co-director Anthony Broccoli explains the differences between weather and climate change and why we may continue to see more intense storms in this frontline article.
RCI Affiliate Benjamin Horton’s research on sea-level rise appeared on a slide on the White House website during a live stream of the President Obama's State of the Union address. Read more here.
NJADAPT Launched
NJADAPT launched! A collaborative effort of scientists and data managers in academia, government, the private sector and NGO community who have developed a strategic plan for a New Jersey platform to host and apply climate science impacts and data. Includes a Flood Exposure Profile for community discussions about hazard impacts (e.g., maps of people, places and assets at risks); NJ Flood Mapper a user friendly visualization tool for flooding hazards and sea level rise; Getting to Resilience a tool to help communities reduce vulnerability and increase preparedness (including how to obtain points through FEMA's Community Rating System). Includes reports such as New Jersey's Coastal Flood Exposure; Modeling the Fate Of New Jersey's Salt Marshes Under Sea Level Rise; NJ Property Value Impacts Case Study and audio visual Story Maps related to several NJ communities (Toms River Township, Tuckerton Borough, Newark-East Ferry) and climate related topics (Salt Marshes and Coastal Flood Exposure). Visit NJADAPT here and see press coverage here.Conferences, Symposia, Calls for Papers, Online Courses, and Seminars
The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is hosting its second Early Career Scientist Workshop at the Centro De Vulcanologia e Avaliação de Riscos Geológicos, University of the Azores, São Miguel (Portugal). It takes place August 31 – September5, 2015. The workshop will bring together the next generation of researchers active in deep carbon studies from around the world. Applications are encouraged from senior graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, fellows, and newly appointed assistant professors working on all aspect of carbon science Visit the DCO website for details.
Asia/Environment Student Research Conference, for undergraduate or graduate level students related to Asia, the environment and sustainable development. sponsored by Bard College. April 16-17, 2105. Submit a paper, poster, or panel idea, or just register to attend. Click here for more information.
The website, MOOC-List provides a list of free online courses on climate change here.
Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s 2015 Waterfront Conference. Propose a presentation. Please submit your proposal here. Deadline for proposals January 12, 2015. Email info (at) waterfrontalliance.org for more information. Conference is on May 7, 2015.
Introduction to Sustainable Development course through Coursera and Columbia University. Course is ongoing and is free and open to all. Click here to take the course.
2015 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers and Symposium on Physical Geography and the Future of Physical Geography. Chicago, Illinois April 23-24, 2015 Proposals due by November 5, 2014. More information here. Direct questions to Carol Harden charden(at)utk.edu.
The 2nd National Adaptation Forum, May 12 through May 14, 2015 in St. Louis, MO represents a collective effort to enhance the resilience of the nation's communities, resources and economy in the face of a changing climate. Proposals to present are being accepted until October 24, 2014. Click here to submit a proposal. Register here.
2015 Rutgers Undergrad Energy Innovation Contest. Sponsored by The Rutgers Energy Institute. More information here. Due February 27, 2015.
2015 Summer Specialty Conference; Climate Change Adaptation. Climate Change and Water Resources: We know the issues - what do we do about them? American Water Resources Association. June 15-17, 2015, New Orleans. Abstracts due February 13, 2015. More information here.
Payment for Ecosystem Services: Putting Theory into Practice in Costa Rica May 25-June 8, 2015.This 2 week, 2 credit advanced graduate level course through the Organization for Tropical Studies will consider the design, implementation, and evaluation of payments for ecosystem services (PES). The priority deadline is February 3, 2015 and the applications are accepted on a rolling basis after that. For more information click and scroll.
Monitoring Tropical Forest Dynamics in a Changing Climate. This course geared towards early graduate students through the Organization for Tropical Studies will incorporate interactive lectures, field practicums, discussion, and R programming to give students knowledge and hands-on experience in the following diverse topics pertaining to tropical forests in a changing climate: impacts, adaptation, mitigation, monitoring, assessment, and political and social context. More details about registration and deadlines will be available soon here. Click and scroll to find the course.
Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided offered through The World Bank and Coursera. The course starts in March 2015 and is free. To register, click here.
Conference and tours July 2015 in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. More information available here.
Jobs, Internships & Funding Opportunities
Click here for more information on Fellowships and Internships.
Research Scientist position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for someone with a PhD and expertise in radiative processes in the Earth’s climate and the implications of these processes for global environmental change. Apply here. Deadline until filled.
Postdoctoral researcher position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for an individual with expertise in Earth’s clouds and convection and the implications of these processes for global climate change. Apply here ASAP for this position and other postdoctoral and research scientist positions at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Rutgers University’s new Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences seeks an accomplished scientist to serve as the first Henry Rutgers Professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. The appointment will be at the level of Full or Distinguished Professor. Applicants should send a letter of interest, CV, and the names of 4 references to eoasearch (at) Rutgers.edu.Review of candidates starts June 1, 2015 until the position is filled. Direct questions to the Chair of the search committee at eoasearch (at) Rutgers.edu. More information about the new Institute here.
The University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Institute invites applications for Climate Fellowships that allow students to research projects that will propel the US toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. Fellows receive mentorship, unique networking opportunities as well as a $6,000 in exchange for their work on various deliverables. 40 hours per week, June 1-August 14, 2015. Applicants must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree when applying. Apply by March 13th here.
The 2016-2017 Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Competition for faculty and professionals is open. It offers teaching, research or combination teaching/research awards. Available for college and university faculty and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, independent scholars and many others. Deadline for most awards August 3, 2015. For more information, click here.
Rutgers Energy Institute summer internships. Open to undergraduate Rutgers students who are freshmen, sophomores, or juniors. Program lasts May 26-August 12th. Students will conduct research over the summer and present findings at the REI Symposium. Applications due March 13, 2015. More info here.
C2C Fellows Leadership Training is a national program for undergraduates and recent graduates aspiring to leadership positions in sustainable politics, policy, and business. The cost of the weekend trainings, including food is $30. Students must arrange their own housing in the NYC area. Sponsored by Bard Center for Environmental Policy. March 27-29, 2015. Apply here. Application due March 10, 2015.
Jerome Goldstein Rutgers EcoComplex “Clean Energy Innovation Center” Summer 2015 internship for sustainability, clean energy systems, waste management technologies, and more. Apply by March 20,2015. Click here for more info.
Two year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College. Department of Geography seeks a postdoctoral fellow with expertise in coupled human and natural systems. Submit application by March 1, 2015 here.
Director, Laboratory of TreeRing Research University of Arizona, Tucson. To apply click here and refer to job number 57183. Application review starts March 1, 2015.
2015 Mark B Bain Graduate Fellowships for research on the Hudson River System via the Hudson River Foundation. Applications due March 16, 2015. More information and application here.
L’Oreal Women In Science fellowship program awards five post-doctoral women scientists in the United States this year with grants up to $60,000. Applications are due on Friday, March 20, 2015. More info and application here.
2015 PACE Fellow Climate Science and Decision Making institutions joint partnership to host a postdoctoral fellow are being solicited by UCAR; statement of intent applications due February 28, 2015. Postdoctoral applications due May 1, 2015. The fellowship is for early-career climate scientists. More info here.
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Physical Oceanography University of Southern Mississippi. To apply, send a letter of interest detailing qualifications, curriculum vitae, and names and contact information for three references to stephan.howden (at) usm.edu. Review of applicants begins immediately, and the position will remain open until filled.
Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) seeks a postdoctoral candidate to support the activities in atmospheric correction for hyperspectral ocean color remote sensing. PhD required. Application due ASAP. Click for application.
Graduate Positions in Atmospheric Science at Indiana University Bloomington. Masters or PhD students would work on tropical cyclone modeling, global climate modeling, and atmospheric remote sensing. Apply to the university by March 16 and more information about the research and the contacts for the grad positions here.
Assistant Professor position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in climate change and environment. Deadine March 15, 2015. More info here.
Helen Fellowship for teaching and research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Deadline March 1, 2015. More information and application here.
REI Graduate Student and Post-doctoral positions as early as Spring 2015 for third year graduate students and/or post-doctoral fellows working on critical aspects of energy research. Click here for more information. Deadline rolling.
NCAR Advanced Study Program (ASP) Summer Colloquium, July 6-17, 2015. For graduate students from both Atmospheric Science and Solar & Space Physics programs to study the interrelated subjects of terrestrial and space climate. Funding for travel and living expenses available. Click here to apply.
Scholarships available for Building One New Jersey and Together North Jersey’s Leadership Institute, which takes place weekends in January and February. For more information about scholarships email Miriam.salerno (at) ejb.rutgers.edu. You can find the application here.
Jessup and McHenry Fellowship to conduct studies at the postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral levels at Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel Univeristy. Deadline March 2, 2015.
RESTORE Act Science Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants for $200,000-400,000 Proposals due March 17, 2015. Click herefor more information.
Valuation Economist, I.M. Systems Group Inc., a contractor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Silver Spring, MD. More information and to apply click here. Open until filled.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) environmental health internship for undergraduates. Application deadline February 11, 2015. More information here.
Climate Access Internship available for graduate students; more details here.
The National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for researchers at participating federal laboratories and affiliated institutions. Awards include stipends ranging from $42,000 - $80,000 per year for recent Ph.D. recipients. Graduate entry-level stipends begin at $30,000. The program is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and for some of the laboratories, foreign nationals. More information and instructions on how to apply are available on the NRC Research Programs website.
Rutgers faculty, staff and students have free subscriptions to COS-PIVOT, a powerful search engine for finding funding opportunities and scholar profiles from within Rutgers and outside of the university.
Rutgers Energy Institute Postdoctoral Associate Fellowship. The REI will support post-doctoral students for broad range of energy research: basic and applied science, engineering, economics, and policy. Each fellowship is one year and includes $25,000 direct cost support. For more information about applying, click here. Applications accepted on a rolling basis. Fellowships available as early as Fall 2014.
Climate Funding Opportunities compiled by NOAA and MN Sea Grant. Deadlines vary by grants. To access the list click here and click on the black "download PDF."
Congratulations
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Benjamin P. Horton, who was recently awarded the 2014 Voyager Award by the Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Paul Falkowski on his newest book Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable, about the biochemical lifting for every living organism on Earth.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Enrique Curchitser on his grant from NSF for $800,000 on regional and decadal predictions of coupled climate-human systems.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Oscar Schofield on his grant from Columbia University for $106,750 to study land and-shelf-ocean connectivity, ecosystems resilience and transformation.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Malin Pinsky on a NJ Sea Grant for $68,875 for genetic monitoring to improve fish stock assessments.
December 2014. Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Ann Marie Carlton on her appointment to a newly established ad hoc National Research Council committee on the future of atmospheric chemistry. More information here.
December 2014. Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp who was named a 2015 Leopold Leadership Fellow for his work in environmental decision making.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Rich Lutz who was selected to receive the 2015 prestigious NOGI award in Sciences from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Shantenu Jha, principal investigator of an award for $499,916 for a project titled Radical Cybertools: Simple, Scalable and Sustainable Tools for Science, supported by the National Science Foundation. Learn more about Professor Jha here.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Patricia Findley, for an award totaling $88,080. The project, titled Sandy: The New Jersey Behavioral Health Response, is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More about Professor Findley here.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Enrique Curchitser who received an $800,000 National Science Foundation award for a project titled Regional Decadal Predictions of Coupled Climate-Human. Learn more about Professor Curchitser here.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Mark Robson for receiving the New Jersey Public Health Award! Read more about Professor Robson’s accomplishment here.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Tom Rudel for winning the 2014 Gerald L. Young Book Award from the Society for Human Ecology. Read more about Professor Rudel's book and the award here.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Benjamin Justice, associate professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy, and Administration,Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, has been awarded the 2014 Critics Choice Book Award from the American Educational Studies Association.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Mark Miller who was appointed as director of the new Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (IEOAS)!
RCI Affiliates Mark G. Robson and Alan Robock Receive Awards for Outstanding Service
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Mark G. Robson for receiving the Sullivan Award from the New Jersey Public Health Association (NJPHA).Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Alan Robock for receiving the Jule G. Charney Award of the American Meteorological Society for “highly significant research or development achievement in the atmospheric or hydrologic sciences.” Read about the awards to Dr. Robson and Dr. Robock here.
RCI Affiliate Malin Pinsky Receives $1.1 Million Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and an NJ Sea Grant Award
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Malin Pinsky for his NSF award to study how climate change and fishery practices will affect summer flounder and hake populations in the Northeast. Read about it here. Dr. Pinsky also won an NJ Sea Grant Award to study genetic monitoring to improve fish stock assessments.
RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp Receives NJ Sea Grant Award
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp for receiving a NJ Sea Grant Award to study the development of historically-calibrated sea level rise projections for risk management along the New Jersey Shore.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Paul Falkowski, of the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences for receiving a $1,394,073 National Science Foundation award for the project Ocean Acidification.
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Alan Robock, winner of the Jule G. Charney Award of the American Meteorological Society which is granted to individuals in recognition of highly significant research or development achievement in the atmospheric or hydrologic sciences. Congratulations also to Professor Robock on his $758,938 award as the principal investigator of the project, Decadal Prediction Following Volcanic Eruptions, supported by the National Science Foundation.
Congratulations to the following RCI Affiliates for their recent grant awards!
Ben Horton. Heterogenous rupture of great Cascadia earthquakes inferred from coastal subsidence estimates. NSF $129,503
Ben Horton, Microfossil, sedimentary and geochemical analyses of inferred tsunami deposits, Aceh Province, Indonesia. Earth Observatory of Singapore, $32,289
Paul Falkowski . Mechanisms of coral mineralization. NSF $1,393,973
Oscar Schofield. Climate driven impacts on marine ecology, biogeochemistry and carbon cycles of the WAP. WHOI $70,468
Congratulations to RCI Affiliate Professor Enrique Curchitser, who was named the U.S. Academic Delegate to International Marine Science Organization. Read about Professor Curchitser and his appointment here.
Congratulations to RCI Co-director Professor Anthony Broccoli who in July 2014 became Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences.
Rutgers faculty and students on coastal geomorphology, climate change, and sea level rise:
Congratulations to RCI affiliate Michael Kennish, lead editor and a contributing author for a special issue of the journal Estuaries and Coasts. The special issue covers "Drivers of Change in Shallow Coastal Photic Systems."
RCI affiliate and Rutgers allergist Leonard Bielory, a researcher focused on the long-term effects of climate change on allergic airway disease, expects an increase in the release of tree pollen this spring, which may produce an intense pollen season for allergy sufferers. Read more about his work at the SEBS Newsroom and NorthJersey.com.
State climatologist and RCI affiliate Dave Robinson was interviewed about this year's winter conditions. How does this winter compare to past years? Listen here.
The jet-stream has increasingly taken a longer, meandering path, leading to weather that becomes "stuck" on an area for an extended period. According to RCI affiliate Jennifer Francis, this extreme weather in the middle latitudes could be due to a warming Arctic, but it's too soon to tell for certain. Read more here.
Listen to RCI Affiliate, Michael Kennish on flood threats in Bayside Communities.
"Anthony Broccoli, co-director of the Rutgers Climate Institute, said January was in the top 20 coldest months in over 100 years, but there have been colder winters." Read more here.
Bitter cold may kill off beetles tearing through Pine Barrens, but RCI affiliate and Geography professor David Robinson maintains that a long-term warming climate will make it more difficult to thwart the beetle. Read more here.
Jennifer Francis, RCI Affiliate and IMCS professor, discusses the polar vortex and how it relates to our weather patterns. Read more here.
Listen to what RU Students are saying about climate change.
RCI Affiliate Malin Pinsky, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, published a study connecting differences in climate velocity—the rate and direction that climate shifts across the landscape—to observed species shifts. Click here for more information.
New publications by RCI Affiliate Ben Horton discusses sea level rise in New Jersey and worldly. Read more here and here.
A recent study by RCI Affiliate Yair Rosenthal, Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences, reconstructs Pacific Ocean heat content over the past 10,000 years, showing that intermediate waters of the Pacific Ocean are absorbing heat 15 times faster over the past 60 years than in the past 10,000. Read more here.
RCI affiliate Jennifer Francis co-authored a study linking Arctic sea ice to shifting weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere's mid-latitudes. Learn more about the emerging research on Arctic and mid-latitude linkages here.
RCI Affiliates Ken Miller, Robert Kopp, Ben Horton, and James Browning of Rutgers University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences project New Jersey sea level rise 11 to 15 inches higher than the global average for next century. Read more about the analysis here. Read the highlight in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.
RCI Affiliate Ben Horton elicited sea level rise projections from 90 experts in the field. The future sea-level rise ranges provided by the experts are on average higher than those of the IPCC 5th assessment. Read more here.
Watch RCI Affiliate Robert Kopp and other experts discuss local and global impacts of climate change from the 5th IPCC Report.
Learn about the effects of dunes, development, storms, and sea level rise along Barnegat Bay in this Q&A and video clip interview with RCI Affiliate, Rutgers Professor Emeritus, Norbert Psuty.
Listen to Anthony Broccoli, Professor of Environmental Sciences and Co-Director of RCI, speaking about historical climate trends, says that with the changing weather and development patterns in the region "the past cannot be used to predict the future."
Watch this video clip of the boat shed at the Rutgers University Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Port Norris, NJ from October 2013. Lab Director, Professor David Bushek notes, "This is the height of a typical fall (October or November) spring tide. When built over 100 years ago, the permit to build was 1 foot above high tide. It rarely flooded when I was a grad student in early 1990s. The surge from Hurricane Sandy was at least three feet higher than shown here."
See how RCI affiliate Lisa Auermuller, Watershed Coordinator for the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve is helping citizens understand sea level rise with tools developed by RCI affiliate Richard Lathrop, Director Rutgers Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis. Watch here.
THINK GLOBAL, BIKE LOCAL
Check out the Rutgers Bike Rental Program and commit to a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, which will improve the quality of life for all.
Briavel Holcomb (“Bria”) is a Professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. She is a geographer who has been at Rutgers since 1972. Originally from England, she did her PhD at the University of Colorado where she was a teaching assistant for the undergraduate meteorology and climatology course for four years…she vaguely remembers what an adiabatic lapse rate is. Her publications include books on revitalizing cities, U.S. geography and women’s lives and public policy, and articles related to urban issues and tourism. In 1990 (and again in 2011) she circumnavigated the world teaching on Semester at Sea. Seeing the mutual impacts that 500 affluent Americans had on street dwellers of Madras (now Chennai) during the monsoon, she returned and began teaching her favorite course – on tourism. She has written on tourism in the Caribbean and in Malta (where she spent a Fulbright in 1995) and most recently on the impact of Sandy on tourism in New Jersey. Over Spring Break she will be in the Bahamas giving a lecture comparing the impacts of climate change on the tourism industry of New Jersey and the Bahamas – both likely to be affected by sea level rise. She is considering how to go gently into that good night of retirement and play granny to her three grandchildren.Read more about Dr. Holcomb.
