Climate & Environment

Creating climate solutions requires connections, partnerships and cross-disciplinary approaches. At CU 麻豆影院, we lead across all fields of climate research: adaptation and innovation, policy, natural hazards, human impacts, and climate science.听Stay up to date on our groundbreaking research and technological advancements.

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doctoral students outside the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Following the pandemic, CIRES students venture out

June 14, 2023

One professor decided it was time to get her doctoral students in environmental science real-life experience by taking them on a four-day field trip to a remote research station up high in Colorado鈥檚 mountains.

Why must we protect nature? Because we can, philosopher says

June 14, 2023

In the book 鈥淭he Wild and the Wicked,鈥� philosophy professor Benjamin Hale argues that because people have the unique capacity to care for the environment, they have a moral obligation to do so.

CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 Mountain Research Station researchers pose for a group photo

鈥楥lassroom in the sky鈥� inspires generations of researchers, students

June 9, 2023

Just north of Nederland, about 26 miles from 麻豆影院, is CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 Mountain Research Station. It is the university鈥檚 highest research facility and is home to some of the world鈥檚 longest-running alpine research on everything from how trees respond to increasing wildfires to charismatic little pikas and more.

As the Southern Ocean heats up, the race is on to protect Antarctica鈥檚 marine life

June 6, 2023

As Earth鈥檚 atmosphere continues to warm, biodiversity in the global ocean is increasingly at risk. In this Q&A with Cassandra Brooks, we explain the importance of protecting the Southern Ocean in particular as the world races to conserve biodiversity across the globe.

A fleet of electric vehicles being charged simultaneously.

Postdoc leads research into decarbonization of transportation sector

June 5, 2023

A paper recently submitted to Nature Scientific Reports explores a scenario in which a 100%-electrified fleet of vehicles must attend to both ride requests submitted by customers and charging requests sent by a utility company during a period of high renewable energy generation.

Research addresses burning questions on firefighter culture

May 31, 2023

For eight summers, Jody Jahn earned money for college working as a wildland firefighter on U.S. Forest Service crews. Now, instead of rappelling out of helicopters to fight fires, she's an associate professor of communication who studies the culture of wildland firefighting crews.

Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

May 26, 2023

More than half of the lakes around the world are losing water. The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at CU 麻豆影院 reconstructed lake levels from the past 30 years, determining that climate change, human consumption and sedimentation are the reasons for the decline.

Man moves a piece on a wooden board, while several other people watch sitting at school desks

Collective property rights spark spirit of cooperation that extends beyond managing land

May 25, 2023

Since the 1990s, Indigenous groups and other communities around the world have increasingly fought for, and secured, collective property rights to the land they live on. New research suggests that these arrangements can have impacts not just on ecosystems like forests but on the psychology of people.

Researchers on skis collect snow measurements near the Continental Divide in Colorado

Earlier snowpack melt in the West could bring summer water scarcity

May 22, 2023

Snow is melting earlier, and more rain is falling instead of snow in the mountain ranges of the Western U.S. and Canada, leading to a leaner snowpack that could impact agriculture, wildfire risk and municipal water supplies come summer, according to a new CU 麻豆影院 analysis.

Fact or fiction? New sci-fi series Extrapolations explores a climate-changed future

May 3, 2023

Black Mirror meets Don鈥檛 Look Up in Apple TV鈥檚 dystopian drama about living through climate change impacts. Not for the faint of heart, Extrapolations depicts a future with rising temperatures, sea levels and global tensions鈥攁ll mostly within the realm of possibility, according to CU experts.

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