[DIALOGnews] DISCCRS News 4/20/2007
Ruth Ladderud
ladderra at whitman.edu
Fri Apr 20 14:00:54 CDT 2007
DISCCRS News
4/20/2007
************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESOURCES and FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage
http://whc.unesco.org/documents/publi_climatechange.pdf news
release:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/319
(see RESOURCES 1 below)
FORUM
The inside track from academia and industry: Crossing boundaries,
hitting barriers
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2007/070222/full/nj7130-950a.html
(see FORUM 1 below)
Women experts in Climate Policy wanted to contribute to American
Meteorological Society blog
(see FORUM 2 below)
SCIENCE NEWS
Climate change may worsen instability
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/17/america/NA-GEN-US-
Climate-Change-Security.php
British Foreign Secretary warns of security threat from climate change
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/17/america/NA-GEN-US-
Climate-Change-Security.php
Scientists Track Impact of Asian Dust and Pollution on Clouds,
Climate Change
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pr07042
Global Warming a Security Risk
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/04/15/
global_warming_a_security_risk/ Or: http://tinyurl.com/396wyp
(see NEWS 1 below)
Nationwide, a Clamor Over Global Warming - Rally Near Capitol Mirrors
More Than 1,400 Others Urging Congressional Action
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/
AR2007041401436.html (free registration required
(see NEWS 2 below)
Global Warming Forecasts Creation, Loss Of Climate Zones
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326181452.htm
(see NEWS 3 below)
Kilimanjaro's Ice Set to Linger
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6561527.stm Or:
http://tinyurl.com/3cgsf2
(see NEWS 4 below)
Growing Number of Americans See Warming as Leading Threat - Most Want
U.S. to Act, but There Is No Consensus on How
www.washingtonpost.com (registration required)
(see NEWS 5 below)
JOBS
Research Fellow - School of Science and Engineering -International
Global Change Institute (IGCI) - University of Waikato – Hamilton
(New Zealand)
(see JOB 1 below)
Marine Biologist - Cabrillo National Monument – San Diego CA (USA)
(see JOB 2 below)
***************************************************
Resources and Funding Opportunities
(RESOURCES 1) Case Studies on Climate Change and World Heritage
http://whc.unesco.org/documents/publi_climatechange.pdf news
release:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/319
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is very pleased to announce the
release of the publication entitled "Case Studies on Climate Change
and World Heritage".
This document is intended to raise awareness about climate change
impacts on the World Heritage. The report features 26 case studies -
including the Tower of London, Kilimanjaro National Park and the
Great Barrier Reef - that are representative of the dangers faced by
the 830 sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.
***************************************************
Forum
(FORUM 1) The inside track from academia and industry: Crossing
boundaries, hitting barriers
http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2007/070222/full/nj7130-950a.html
Nature 445, 950 (February 2007) - Interdisciplinary research may
be lauded, but it's not yet rewarded.
The scientific community recognizes the importance of
interdisciplinary research. But institutions have not yet caught up
with ways to reward good examples of it. In fact, interdisciplinary
research in academia often faces discouraging barriers. Working
across disciplines requires not only depth of knowledge but also a
holistic understanding of complex systems. But the tenure system
largely favours narrowly focused research in subdisciplines.
Much progress in our field, Earth sciences, has emerged from
working across several disciplines. Combining medicine and geophysics
is resulting in new medical devices. Mixing meteorology and biology
provides new ways of looking at the spread of infectious disease. And
blending oceanography and atmospheric science leads to a better
understanding of the causes and consequences of global warming. We
need to continue and expand these multidimensional approaches to
benefit humanity and improve the prediction of climate and natural
hazards, and to provide science-based solutions that support human
well-being and the sustainable use of our resources.
The 2006 US National Academies report Rising Above the Gathering
Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic
Future emphasizes the value of interdisciplinary research, noting
that many significant scientific and engineering advances cut across
several disciplines.
Academia has taken some steps to embrace interdisciplinary
research. The Harvard University Center for the Environment programme
recognizes that the most pressing problems facing the environment are
complex and often require collaborative investigation by scholars
versed in different disciplines. Similarly, the new Woods Institute
for the Environment at Stanford University is an interdisciplinary
hub for research, teaching and problem-solving that draws on the
experience and expertise of faculty members and students from all
seven schools at Stanford University.
But the university reward system has generally not kept pace with
this approach. Most universities still rely on a tenure process that
judges excellence and leadership in a narrowly defined disciplinary
(or subdisciplinary) field.
Indeed, a 2004 National Academies report, Facilitating
Interdisciplinary Research, lists "promotion criteria" as the top
impediment to interdisciplinary research, based on separate rankings
by both scientists and university provosts. "An interdisciplinary
faculty member seeking tenure often faces two challenges beyond those
faced by members working in a single discipline," says the report.
"First, interdisciplinary research done by the candidate may not be
valued sufficiently to compensate for lower output of disciplinary
research ... Second, it can be difficult to find reviewers who
understand the overall quality of the work, which usually lies
outside the expertise of people on the tenure evaluation committee."
The committee recommended that institutions provide more
flexibility in promotion and tenure procedures, recognizing that the
contributions of someone in interdisciplinary research may need to be
evaluated differently from those of someone in a single-discipline
project. Indeed, if universities want to attract and retain
innovative young researchers and foster novel approaches to science,
they should support infrastructure, research needs and opportunities
for integrative research. They also need to find different ways of
rewarding and evaluating scientists who are engaged in such research.
If universities want to attract innovative young researchers,
they should support integrative research.
We advocate several steps towards proper recognition of the
contributions of interdisciplinary researchers. They include
establishing interdisciplinary review committees to evaluate faculty
members who are conducting such research, with at least one of the
committee members actively doing interdisciplinary work themselves.
We'd like to see tenure committees solicit input from scientists
personally familiar with the candidate's work — people who can
assess individual contributions to collaborative projects and roles
in facilitating the research. Letters to external referees should be
formulated to emphasize the transdisciplinary nature of the
candidate's work and not require that the candidate be identified as
or compared with an expert in one specific field. Interdisciplinary
researchers could also have more time to reach tenure milestones, as
their research can be more time-consuming to coordinate, conduct and
synthesize.
Interdisciplinary research and education are inspired by the
drive to provide effective solutions to complex questions. A central
problem it faces is in finding ways to remove those barriers.
By Adina Paytan and Mary Lou Zoback
********************
(FORUM 2) Women experts in Climate Policy wanted to contribute to
American Meteorological Society blog
Hi all,
Climate change modeling and climate policy are not my specific
fields of research, but since I think climate policy is a subject
that affects all of us, I am interested in it. I was quite interested
recently to see that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has
developed their own climate policy blog (http://
www.climatepolicy.org/). I think it is exciting that one of the major
professional organizations in the field is stepping up to provide
some valid information and discussion for journalists and
policymakers. Anyway, the point of this email is that in looking at
the AMS blog, I was surprised to see that of the 8 bloggers listed,
none were women. Perhaps it is because I just looked through the
gender tutorials that Roberta sent out recently, but that really
struck me as a bit inequitable, espcially from a professional
organization like AMS. So I emailed the director of the AMS policy
program to ask him about it. He said that they had asked several
women, who had turned them down for various reasons. He of course
then turned the question around and asked me who I would recommend as
a participant.
So that is why I am turning to you. As I said, climate policy is
not my area of research so I don't read the journals in that field,
but perhaps some of you do and could recommend some women who are
experts in climate policy (or perhaps you are an expert yourself and
would be interested). Anyway, please let me know if you have any
suggestions.
Thanks,
Sally
Dr. Sally McFarlane, Climate Physics Group, Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352 , MSIN K9-24 509-375-6402
***************************************************
Science News
(NEWS 1) Global Warming a Security Risk
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/04/15/
global_warming_a_security_risk/ Or: http://tinyurl.com/396wyp
Boston Globe (Registration Required) - WASHINGTON--Global warming
poses a "serious threat to America's national security" with
terrorism worsening and the U.S. will likely be dragged into fights
over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in
a new report.
Joining calls already made by scientists and environmental
activists, the retired U.S. military leaders, including the former
Army chief of staff and President Bush's former chief Middle East
peace negotiator, called on the U.S. government to make major cuts in
emissions of gases that cause global warming.
The report warned that in the next 30 to 40 years there will be
wars over water, increased hunger instability from worsening disease
and rising sea levels and global warming-induced refugees. "The chaos
that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the
growth of terrorism," the 35- page report predicted.
********************
(NEWS 2) Nationwide, a Clamor Over Global Warming - Rally Near
Capitol Mirrors More Than 1,400 Others Urging Congressional Action
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/
AR2007041401436.html (free registration required)
Washington Post – In front of the Capitol they gathered, a thick
semicircle of a couple hundred people -- mostly students, some
parents with small children and a smattering of graying others. They
crowded around a stage and carried signs that said, "Stop Global
Warming."
"Students have historically been at the forefront of most major
political and social movements," Towson University freshman Erica
Stout boomed into a microphone. "We protested the Vietnam War . . .
we stood up against racial injustices . . . and we are here again
today to demand an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions."On broad
signs stretching to the right and left of the stage were photos from
across the country: 5,000 pictures of nearly 10,000 students from
such schools as Brown, Texas A&M and California State universities
and the Connecticut Community College system -- all holding signs and
banners calling for more congressional attention to global warming.
At more than 1,400 events yesterday, in each of the 50 states --
including such places as Homer, Alaska, and Moscow, Idaho -- events
urging Congress to action against climate change took place, honoring
the National Day of Climate Action.
"The point was not to get a lot of people in one place," said
Alison Hobart, 39, who came from Fayston, Vt., with her family. "It
was to get people excited in a lot of places. Lots of people we know
in Vermont were going to local ones." She was in Washington to visit
her sister, so they came to the Capitol event. "If we were just going
to go to an action, we wouldn't use that much fossil fuel to go to D.C."
Sprinkled throughout the crowd were members of the Religious
Campaign for Forest Conservation who came to Washington for meetings
on the subject this week and stopped by to support yesterday's Step
It Up rally.
"I'm here because I feel a calling by God," said Tom Herschelman,
63, of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., who works for an insurance company and
is working toward a master's degree in theology. "God owns the Earth.
We are stewards of the Earth. For us to trash the Earth, to think
that it is only for our use, does not illustrate humility. It
illustrates arrogance.
********************
(NEWS 3) Global Warming Forecasts Creation, Loss Of Climate Zones
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070326181452.htm
A new global warming study predicts that many current climate
zones will vanish entirely by the year 2100, replaced by climates
unknown in today's world.
The most severely affected parts of the world span both heavily
populated regions, including the southeastern United States,
southeastern Asia and parts of Africa, and known hotspots of
biodiversity, such as the Amazonian rainforest and African and South
American mountain ranges. In general, the models show that existing
climate zones will shift toward higher latitudes and higher
elevations, squeezing out the climates at the extremes - tropical
mountaintops and the poles - and leaving room for unfamiliar climes
around the equator.
Physical restrictions on species may also amplify the effects of
local climate changes. The more relevant question, Williams says,
becomes not just whether a given climate still exists, but "will a
species be able to keep up with its climatic zone? Most species can't
migrate around the world.
********************
(NEWS 4) Kilimanjaro's Ice Set to Linger
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6561527.stm Or:
http://tinyurl.com/3cgsf2
BBC News Online - A fresh assessment suggests the famous ice
fields on Africa's tallest mountain will be around for decades yet.
Recent concerns that climate warming would rob Mount Kilimanjaro of
all its glaciers within 20 years are overly pessimistic, say Austrian
scientists.
Their weather station data and modelling work indicate the
tropical ice should last well beyond 2040. Precipitation and not
temperature is the key to the white peak's future, the University of
Innsbruck-led team says.
"About five years ago Kilimanjaro was being used as an icon for
global warming. We know now that this was far too simplistic a view,"
said Thomas Moelg. "We have done different kinds of modelling and we
expect the plateau glaciers to be gone roughly within 30 or 40 years
from now, but we have a certain expectation that the slope glaciers
may last longer," added colleague Georg Kaser.
*******************
(NEWS 5) Growing Number of Americans See Warming as Leading Threat -
Most Want U.S. to Act, but There Is No Consensus on How
www.washingtonpost.com (registration required)
Washington Post - A third of Americans say global warming ranks
as the world's single largest environmental problem, double the
number who gave it top ranking last year, a nationwide poll shows.
In the new poll, conducted jointly by The Washington Post, ABC
News and Stanford University, most of those surveyed said that
climate change is real and that they want the federal government to
do more about it. But the survey also shows there is little public
agreement about the policies the United States should adopt to
address it.
The findings come weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the
federal government has the right to regulate carbon dioxide, the
largest contributor to human-caused warming. Congress is pressing to
enact limits on all greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate
change, but it remains unclear how soon the House or the Senate could
pass such legislation.
According to the poll, seven in 10 Americans want more federal
action on global warming, and about half of those surveyed think the
government should do "much more" than it is doing now.
By a 40-point margin, the public trusts congressional Democrats
more than it trusts President Bush to handle global warming. More
than nine in 10 Democrats in the poll said they trusted their party's
leaders over Bush on the issue, as did 54 percent of independents and
one in five Republicans.
Bush has maintained that he will rely on scientific developments
and voluntary measures, rather than curbs on greenhouse-gas
emissions, to tackle global warming.
***************************************************
Jobs
Planktonnet: Great listserv for aquatic-science jobs
To subscribe to the list, send an empty email to:
planktonnet-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
Or, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planktonnet/ and click on
'Join this group'
********************
(JOB 1) Research Fellow - School of Science and Engineering -
International Global Change Institute (IGCI) - University of Waikato
– Hamilton (New Zealand)
We are seeking a suitably qualified person to undertake
interdisciplinary socio-economic research. The fixed-term, 3 years,
position will involve carrying out risk assessments and cost benefit
analyses of different adaptation and mitigation strategies for
various climate change scenarios.
The successful candidate will have a recent PhD in Economics with
demonstrable knowledge of climate change related subjects.
Enquiries of an academic nature can be directed to Professor
Janet Bornman, Director of the Institute, email jbornman at waikato.ac.nz
Applications close: Friday, 11 May 2007.
Applications should be made on the University of Waikato
Application Form available from our website jobs.waikato.ac.nz or
contact HRM - email: jobs at waikato.ac.nz, telephone +64 7 838
4003 , facsimile +64 7 856 0135.
********************
(JOB 2) Marine Biologist - Cabrillo National Monument – San Diego CA
(USA)
Cabrillo National Monument (National Park Service) will very soon
be recruiting for a marine biologist (Marine Biologist or Ecologist
GS-09). Incumbent’s duties concentrate on the marine ecosystems
within the park, including managing and implementing an established
ecologically-based monitoring program in the rocky intertidal zone.
This includes planning and experimental design, field work, volunteer
management, analysis and interpretation of results, and report
preparation. Coordination, networking, and developing relationships
with other professionals from academia, agencies and other NPS units
(especially Channel Islands National Park) is critical to facilitate
this program. This position requires good verbal and written
communication skills and the ability to use a range of technical
equipment and computer software. This is a full-time, permanent,
subject to furlough position. We are looking for a positive,
enthusiastic individual interested in southern California rocky
intertidal communities to join us.
This position will soon be posted on the Internet at http://
www.usajobs.gov/. We are encouraging interested applicants to begin
preparing their application now (e.g., using a resume or OF-612).
When posted, the position will be open approximately two weeks. In
order to receive consideration for this position, please ensure that
your application is complete and submitted appropriately according to
instructions in the vacancy announcement. Incomplete applications
will not be considered. Please contact Andrea Compton, Chief of
Natural Resource Science Division at Cabrillo NM, for more
information or clarification on the position itself– 619-523-4581 or
Andrea_Compton at nps.gov.
**************************************************
This newsletter has been developed by C. Susan Weiler to distribute
information of potential interest to recent PhDs engaged in
interdisciplinary aquatic science or climate-change research, and to
build an international sense of community among recent grads. It
provides an international forum for the exchange of information and
opinions regarding research, professional and social issues. The
views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the
funding agencies or sponsoring societies. Dr. Weiler reserves the
right to edit or reject material submitted to the list.
Please submit announcements of interest to recent PhDs to
phd at whitman.edu. Send a short message in the body of an e-mail
message, and link to any appropriate websites. Do not send attachments.
Moving? Send address changes to dialog at whitman.edu or
disccrs at whitman.edu
**********
C. Susan Weiler, Ph.D.
Office for Earth System Studies Tel: 509-527-5948
Whitman College Fax: 509-527-5961
Walla Walla, WA 99362
weiler at whitman.edu
Programs for Recent PhDs http://aslo.org/phd.html
DISCCRS poster http://www.aslo.org/phd/disccrsposter.pdf
Workshop Report, Meeting the Needs of
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Graduates in a
Changing Global Environment
http://marcus.whitman.edu/~weilercs/biocomplexity/
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