CCS Climate Change and CCS
New Report: Evaluating Knowledge to Support Climate Action
Governments and communities around
the world are working to reduce their carbon footprints and
mitigate the effects of climate change, but in some communities,
climate action plans are stalling. A new report, “Evaluating
Knowledge to Support Climate Action,” prepared by the
Independent Advisory Committee for Applied Climate Assessment
(IAC) with contributions from our Executive Director, Ryan Meyer,
examines what it would take to develop a dynamic assessment
process that helps affected jurisdictions, communities, and
organizations establish pathways for climate action. Its
recommendations are an important input to ongoing climate
assessment and research in the federal government and elsewhere.
A role for community and citizen science
Bringing communities to the table and making sure they have the resources they need to adapt to new climate conditions is important, and community and citizen science play a critical role. This report hits upon the urgent need and exciting potential for diverse communities to participate actively in the science that supports climate adaptation and resilience. Participation through community and citizen science can address longstanding issues of equity and access that have for so long made science feel distant and irrelevant to many, even as the impacts of climate change loom larger and larger. Additionally, citizen and community science has the potential to close gaps in data-poor areas, shedding light on previously undocumented socioeconomic, ecological and health-related issues.
Sara Ludwick Presents Award-winning Poster at AGU
Congratulations to Sara
Ludwick, whose poster at the AGU fall meeting entitled
“Achieving Education Goals with Climate-related Community and
Citizen Science,” received an Outstanding Student
Presentation Award! Read on for Sara’s reflections on the
experience.
I practiced my poster presentation with my family the night before my flight to Washington, D.C. The poster explored features of community and citizen science (CCS) projects that had a climate change focus. We were interested in showing how, within the context of climate change, CCS has the potential to not only generate usable data for climate science, but also to provide meaningful learning experiences for participants, depending on how these projects are designed and implemented. I thought it would be a good idea to practice talking about this work with people who had no idea what citizen science is, but their puzzled looks made me feel even more nervous about going to AGU. I spent that night fighting anxious thoughts and battling the infamous “Imposter Syndrome.”