[DIALOGnews] DISCCRS News 6/1/2007
Ruth Ladderud
ladderra at whitman.edu
Fri Jun 1 13:35:43 CDT 2007
DISCCRS News
6/1/2007
************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESOURCES and FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
EPA Climate Change Kids Site
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/
The kids page focuses on the science and impacts of global warming or
climate change, and on actions that help address climate ...
SCIENCE NEWS
Latest research paper available from Jim Hansen: The paper "Dangerous
human-made interference with climate: a GISS model study" is available
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/2287/2007/acp-7-2287-2007.pdf
The paper documenting the climate model employed in that study is
also in press (at Climate Dynamics) and available now at
http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/notyet/inpress_Hansen_etal_1.pdf
Earth Nears Tipping Point on Climate Change
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0530/p02s01-wogi.html Or: http://
tinyurl.com/2d2uul
(see NEWS 1 below)
Bush Proposes Talks on Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/
AR2007053100934.html?hpid=topnews Or: http://tinyurl.com/3b63ya
(see NEWS 2 below)
Are Plants Really Villains in Climate Change?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=E3DECF33-
E7F2-99DF-3EB8FC170F0B458A&chanID=sa003 Or: http://tinyurl.com/yqcvry
(see NEWS 3 below)
Indigenous Alaskans suffer consequences of warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html (registration
required)
(see NEWS 4 below)
AP pinpoints 5 vulnerable hurricane areas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_re_us/
the_next_new_orleans or http://tinyurl.com/2rgr6k
(see NEWS 5 below)
U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal, Germany Urges Limiting Emissions,
Temperature Increase
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/
AR2007052501952.html or http://tinyurl.com/ypw2lh
(see NEWS 6 below)
Belize forest hit by warming struggles to survive
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?
linkid=76506 or http://tinyurl.com/28bvpl
(see NEWS 7 below)
Climate change is food for thought
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-is-food-for-
thought/2007/05/25/1179601669123.html or http://tinyurl.com/34qgls
(see NEWS 8 below)
Time to tax carbon A carbon tax is the best, cheapest and most
efficient way to combat cataclysmic climate change.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-
carbontax28may28,1,502798.story?ctrack=1&cset=true or http://
tinyurl.com/32xdzu
(see NEWS 9 below)
NASA's Top Official Questions Global Warming - NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin Questions Need to Combat Warming
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3229696&page=1
(see NEWS 10 below)
Global warming is shrinking the Great Lakes
(see NEWS 11 below)
Rainfall records could warn of war
(see NEWS 12 below)
SUMMER PROGRAMS, COURSES, INTERNSHIPS, MEETINGS, OPPORTUNITIES
8th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment (NCSE)
- Climate Change: Science and Solutions - January 16-18, 2008,
Washington, DC
www.NCSEonline.org/2008conference
Visiting Research Fellowship – Climatology - University of
Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, (Australia)
(see SABBATICAL OPPORTUNITY below)
JOBS
One-year Visiting Faculty Position (Fall '07) - Energy and/or the
built or urban environments - Environmental Studies, Oberlin College,
Ohio (USA)
http://www.oberlin.edu/HR/FACopenings/FAC07-43.html
Post-doc
- Lake Superior Carbon Cycle Postdoctoral Scholar - Center for
Climatic Research - University of Wisconsin – Madison (USA)
(see JOB 1 below)
Research fellow - Socio-political nature of water - Oxford University
Centre for the Environment
http://www.ouce.ox.ac.uk/news/jobs/070523.php
(see JOB 2 below)
Program Officer - Social Measures: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Washington, D.C. (USA)
www.worldwildlife.org/about/jobs.cfm (Position not listed until
sometime after June 8)
(see JOB 3 below)
Lecturer, Teaching Fellows - Physical and Human Geography: 5 jobs
open at St. Andrews (Scotland)
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies
(see JOBS 4 below)
Post Doc Positions - Land Cover and Land Use Change and Carbon
Dynamics - Department of Geography and Environment, Boston University
(USA)
(see JOBS 5 below)
***************************************************
Science News
(NEWS 1) Earth Nears Tipping Point on Climate Change
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0530/p02s01-wogi.html Or: http://
tinyurl.com/2d2uul
Christian Science Monitor - Dangerous climate change has not yet
arrived, but the tipping point may not be far off. And it may be
reached with a smaller temperature rise than recent studies suggest.
Those are among the conclusions from an international team of
climate scientists in a study this month, which they say bolsters the
case for an alternative strategy to combat climate change. The main
idea: focus intensely on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions other than
carbon dioxide in the short term, giving the world a little leeway in
dealing with the trickier issue of CO2.
Most climate scientists point to rising carbon-dioxide levels
from burning coal, oil, and gas as the main driver behind global
warming. But the international team says that fighting ozone, soot,
and other pollutants, which also can warm the atmosphere, could allow
CO2 levels to rise a little higher without reaching the tipping point.
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(NEWS 2) Bush Proposes Talks on Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/
AR2007053100934.html?hpid=topnews Or: http://tinyurl.com/3b63ya
Washington Post (Registration Required) - President Bush sought
yesterday to take the initiative on global warming talks in which the
administration had previously been a reluctant participant, offering
to launch negotiations aimed at having the world's most prolific
polluters agree on long-term goals for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
The proposal, which Bush unveiled in a speech outlining his
priorities for the Group of Eight summit in Germany next week,
signaled a shift in the administration's often-criticized approach to
combating global warming while offering what the president called a
"new framework" for addressing the issue.
Though the president is still not backing a mandatory cap on
carbon dioxide emissions, he made it clear that he would like the
United States to play a major role in shaping global environmental
policy after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
********************
(NEWS 3) Are Plants Really Villains in Climate Change?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=E3DECF33-
E7F2-99DF-3EB8FC170F0B458A&chanID=sa003 Or: http://tinyurl.com/yqcvry
Scientific American - -Tropical forests spew methane into the
air, unwittingly abetting human-produced climate change. So say
geochemist Frank Keppler of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in
Mainz, Germany, and atmospheric physicist Thomas Rockmann of the
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht in the
Netherlands.
But new research, using more sensitive measurement techniques and
better growing conditions, failed to turn up any evidence of
significant methane emission.
The new study, conducted by botanist Tom Dueck and his colleagues
at Plant Research International in Wageningen, the Netherlands, found
only negligible methane emissions coming from plants. "[The
concentrations] were so low and variable that they did not
significantly differ from zero," Dueck says. "We thought that if
Keppler's claim was true, we could affirm his findings with better
methods. If not, we'd have a scientific dispute."
********************
(NEWS 4) Indigenous Alaskans suffer consequences of warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html (registration
required)
NY Times, May 27, 2007 - Engulfed by Climate Change, Town Seeks
Lifeline
NEWTOK, Alaska — The sturdy little Cessnas land whenever the fog
lifts, delivering children's bicycles, boxes of bullets, outboard
motors and cans of dried oats. And then, with a rumble down a gravel
strip, the planes are gone, the outside world recedes and this
subarctic outpost steels itself once again to face the frontier of
climate change.
"I don't want to live in permafrost no more," said Frank Tommy,
47, standing beside gutted geese and seal meat drying on a wooden
rack outside his mother's house. "It's too muddy. Everything is
crooked around here."
The earth beneath much of Alaska is not what it used to be. The
permanently frozen subsoil, known as permafrost, upon which Newtok
and so many other Native Alaskan villages rest, is melting, yielding
to warming air temperatures and a warming ocean. Sea ice that would
normally protect coastal villages is forming later in the year,
allowing fall storms to pound away at the shoreline.
Erosion has made Newtok an island, caught between the ever
widening Ninglick River and a slough to the north. The village is
below sea level, and sinking. Boardwalks squish into the spring muck.
Human waste, collected in "honey buckets" that many residents use for
toilets, is often dumped within eyeshot in a village where no point
is more than a five-minute walk from any other. The ragged wooden
houses have to be adjusted regularly to level them on the shifting soil.
Studies say Newtok could be washed away within a decade. Along
with the villages of Shishmaref and Kivalina farther to the north, it
has been the hardest hit of about 180 Alaska villages that suffer
some degree of erosion.
Some villages plan to hunker down behind sea walls built or
planned by the Army Corps of Engineers, at least for now. Others,
like Newtok, have no choice but to abandon their patch of tundra. The
corps has estimated that to move Newtok could cost $130 million
because of its remoteness, climate and topography. That comes to
almost $413,000 for each of the 315 residents.
Not that anyone is offering to pay.
********************
(NEWS 5) AP pinpoints 5 vulnerable hurricane areas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_re_us/
the_next_new_orleans or http://tinyurl.com/2rgr6k
Just because Katrina was the perfect storm, a catastrophic combo
of the wrong hurricane in the wrong place at the wrong time, doesn't
mean that history can't repeat itself, leaving another city
obliterated by another tempest. It can.
And as we enter what weather prognosticators are euphemistically
calling another "active season," citizens and civil servants from
Texas to New England are asking themselves: Where's the next New
Orleans?
The Associated Press has pinpointed five of the most vulnerable
U.S. coastal spots.
Among them: Galveston, Texas, sitting uneasily by the Gulf of
Mexico, its residents limited to a single evacuation route; Miami,
full of elderly people and others who might be trapped; and New York
City, long spared a major storm but susceptible to a calamity of
submerged subways and refugees caught in horrendous traffic jams.
Like so many other places, they are vulnerable because of
geography. But mostly, they are imperiled because Americans have a
love affair with the coast.
********************
(NEWS 6) U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal, Germany Urges Limiting
Emissions, Temperature Increase
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/
AR2007052501952.html or http://tinyurl.com/ypw2lh
U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly
worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that
Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to
documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Representatives from the world's leading industrial nations met the
past two days in Heiligendamm, Germany, to negotiate over German
Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposed statement, which calls for
limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit and cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent
below 1990 levels by 2050.
(continued...)
Related news: the leaked preparatory document for the G8 summit in
Germany can be found here:
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/G8%20Summit%20Declaration%20-
%20US%20comments%20May%2014-1.pdf
********************
(NEWS 7) Belize forest hit by warming struggles to survive
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?
linkid=76506 or http://tinyurl.com/28bvpl
A once-majestic pine forest in Belize is struggling to recover
from a devastating plague of beetles that scientists say was caused
by climate change.
Tiny pine beetles destroyed up to 80 percent, or close to 70,000
acres (28,300 hectares), of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest near
Belize's border with Guatemala when trees stressed by higher
temperatures and years of water shortages could not defend themselves.
Efforts to replant were set back by a fierce forest fire two
weeks ago that wiped out close to 20,000 acres (8,090 hectares) of
this natural reserve, which is made up of Caribbean pines and home to
small foxes, deer and birds.
(continued...)
********************
(NEWS 8) Climate change is food for thought
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-is-food-for-
thought/2007/05/25/1179601669123.html or http://tinyurl.com/34qgls
Australia's dietary guidelines may need to be modified in
response to climate change, says one of the country's leading health
experts.
Professor Tony McMichael, director of the National Centre for
Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National
University, said that as the world continued to experience land
degradation, water shortages and other environmental pressures, the
availability of some foods may be affected.
"If we did have to reconsider, for example, the amounts of meat
we can consume on the basis of environmental and climactic concerns,
it may well be in competition with the current views of practising
dietitians with respect to the desirable daily intake," said
Professor McMichael, who will address a national conference of the
Dietitians Association of Australia in Hobart today.
Professor McMichael said dietary guidelines should take into
account the levels of nutrients needed for optimal health while
maintaining the natural environmental systems required to produce our
food.
The recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change found that in the next 20 years, crop yields could decrease by
up to 30 per cent in some parts of Asia.
(continued...)
********************
(NEWS 9) Time to tax carbon A carbon tax is the best, cheapest and
most efficient way to combat cataclysmic climate change.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-
carbontax28may28,1,502798.story?ctrack=1&cset=true or http://
tinyurl.com/32xdzu
If your have kids, take them to the beach. They should enjoy it
while it lasts, because there's a chance that within their lifetimes
California's beaches will vanish under the waves.
Global warming will redraw the maps of the world. The U.N.'s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that sea levels
will rise 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century; as the water gets
higher, the sandy beaches that make California a tourist magnet will
be washed away. Beachfront real estate will end up underwater, cliffs
will erode faster, sea walls will buckle and inlets will become bays.
The water supply will be threatened as mountain snowfall turns to
rain and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faces contamination with
saltwater. Droughts will likely become more common, as will the
wildfires they breed.
Global warming is happening and will accelerate regardless of
what we do today, but the scenarios of climatologists' nightmares can
still be avoided. Though the cost will be high, it pales in
comparison to the cost of doing nothing.
(continued...)
********************
(NEWS 10) NASA's Top Official Questions Global Warming - NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin Questions Need to Combat Warming
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3229696&page=1
NASA administrator Michael Griffin is drawing the ire of his
agency's preeminent climate scientists after apparently downplaying
the need to combat global warming.
In an interview broadcast this morning on National Public Radio's
"Morning Edition" program, Griffin was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep
whether he is concerned about global warming.
"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin
told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a
problem we must wrestle with."
"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of
Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that
we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make
sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask
which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the
privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right
here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings.
I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."
Griffin's comments immediately drew stunned reaction from James
Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist at the Goddard Institute for
Space Studies in New York.
"It's an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement," Hansen told
ABC News. "It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the
implications of climate change."
(continued...)
********************
(NEWS 11) Global warming is shrinking the Great Lakes
30 May 2007 - NewScientist.com news service - Tom Mackay
reckons his backyard in Duluth shows what is happening in Lake
Superior as well as any place. In November 2005, the metre-tall
wooden "Bay Ness Monster" statue he installed in the water just off
his home dock was submerged up to its gaping mouth. Today, his would-
be water serpent is high and dry.
For residents of this lakeside Minnesota city, located more than
3000 kilometres by boat from the open Atlantic, the transformation is
disturbing. Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the
world by surface area, is experiencing its lowest water levels since
the record set in 1926. The lake is down by 34 centimetres from a
year ago, and more than half a metre below its long-term mean. At
least part of the drop can be attributed to a multi-year drought that
has been particularly severe since 2006. More troubling, however, is
evidence that global warming is driving a long-term shrinkage of this
massive natural reservoir.
A rapidly warming lake is the key to understanding the change,
says Jay Austin, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota
Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory. Earlier this year he reported that
Superior's surface waters had warmed by about 2.5 °C since 1979 - far
more than average air temperatures in the region during the same
period (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 34, p L06604). Austin's
findings link the warming to a reduction in winter ice cover on the
lake. The less ice is present to reflect sunlight, the more solar
energy the lake can absorb. On average, the onset of summer warming
of the lake is happening half a day earlier each year. The reduced
ice cover also contributes to shrinkage by allowing more evaporation.
"Most of the evaporation goes on in winter," Austin says, as cold,
dry air swoops over the warmer lake. Without the ice cap to block
evaporation, water losses increase.
"Lake Superior's surface temperature has warmed by 2.5 °C since
1979 - far more than average local air temperatures"
Cynthia Sellinger of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann
Arbor, Michigan, agrees. While the lake's level has dropped
precipitously since last year, Sellinger has tracked a longer-term
decline of an average of 10 millimetres per year since 1978.
Evaporation has increased by an average of 4.6 millimetres per year
over the same period, she says, while precipitation has decreased by
4.1 millimetres per year. These drops are consistent with climate
change models, Austin says, which predict a decline in Great Lakes
levels of 0.5 to 2.5 metres with a doubling of atmospheric carbon
dioxide.
The falling water level is already affecting Lake Superior's
shipping industry. Freighters carry less cargo now for fear of
running aground. Natural beds of wild rice growing in the lake's
shoreside wetlands and harvested by Native Americans are also
threatened. The long-term effects of prolonged warming on Lake
Superior's aquatic ecosystems are not yet known.
Austin has found similar increases in temperature and length of
warming season in lakes Michigan and Huron, which are both at lower
than average levels. In contrast, lakes Erie and Ontario have
captured plenty of rain in recent years, Sellinger says, including
the remnants of hurricanes Katrina and Dennis, and are at above
average levels.
Last month the US-Canadian International Joint Commission, which
manages waters on the boundary, commissioned a study of water
management of the upper Great Lakes to determine whether managing
lake outflow differently could improve levels.
Meanwhile, Mackay's friends have had to find a deeper place than his
dock to moor their boats for the season. "If we get some rain,
hopefully we're back in business," Mackay says. Austin is less
optimistic. This is the season when the lake should be rising
quickly, and it's not keeping pace, he says. "2007 is shaping up to
be a very low year.
********************
(NEWS 12) Rainfall records could warn of war
30 May 2007 - NewScientist.com news service - Every month, the
International Crisis Group makes predictions it hopes won't come
true. The non-profit organisation, which has its base in Brussels,
Belgium, monitors regions where conflict is brewing. By tracking
precursors of armed struggle, such as political instability, it
raises awareness about looming wars in the hope of stopping conflicts
before they begin. And as of this month, it will start talking about
whether to include another variable in its analyses: climate change.
The discussions come after a wave of interest in the link between
climate change and conflict. Last month, a group of retired US
admirals and generals said global warming would act as a "threat
multiplier", with events such as droughts toppling unstable
governments and unleashing conflict. The UN Security Council has
devoted time to the matter, and media reports have described the
crisis in Darfur, Sudan, as the first "climate change war", due to
the decades of droughts that preceded the conflict.
"Global warming could act as a 'threat multiplier', with events such
as droughts toppling unstable governments"
Marc Levy at Columbia University in New York, who is working with
the ICG, is one of the few researchers who have been able to support
these speculations with data. In a forthcoming paper, he and
colleagues combine databases on civil wars and water availability to
show that when rainfall is significantly below normal, the risk of a
low-level conflict escalating to a full-scale civil war approximately
doubles in the following year.
Parts of Nepal that witnessed fighting during the 2002 Maoist
insurgency, for example, had suffered worse droughts in preceding
years than regions that were conflict-free. Although Levy is not sure
why the link should exist in this case, studies of other conflicts
suggest explanations. Drought can cause food shortages, generating
anger against governments, for example. "Semi-retired" armed groups
may return to conflict in these situtations.
Levy wants to see if a model based on the link between rainfall
and climate can help aid agencies. For each of the 70 or so locations
on the ICG's watch list, he will use rainfall measurements and
forecasts to calculate the impact the weather is having on conflict
risk. That analysis is likely to flag up the Ivory Coast among
others, he says. A 2003 peace accord ended years of violence in the
country, but many armed groups have not surrendered their weapons.
Ongoing drought in the north might soon destabilise the country and
trigger a return to violence, Levy says.
Including rainfall would be a fairly basic addition to the
analyses that the group performs, but it could be the start of a
major change in thinking. If the rainfall data helps, information on
floods and severe storms could be added, for example. "We're starting
to see a real focus on this," says Dan Esty of Yale University.
"Suddenly people are making the link."
Not everyone is as confident of the link as Levy, however. Over a
decade ago, the CIA set up the Political Instability Task Force to
produce models that can flag up vulnerable governments. It relies on
variables such as infant mortality, which measures the strength of a
country's health system. Although events such as droughts cause
tension, the models showed it is other factors that determine whether
tension becomes conflict.
"Research has not succeeded in establishing robust, systematic
connections between climate and conflict," says Halvard Buhaug of the
International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. With the
connection still under debate, it may be too early to talk about
climate change wars. "So far, climate change has not been powerful
enough to be the main driver of conflict," says Jack Goldstone at
George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. "Drought was a
contributory factor in Darfur, not the main cause."
Yet many researchers say that this uncertainty should not stop
Levy from working with aid groups. They say droughts and floods add
to the pressure on governments and need to be monitored. A simple
link may not exist, says Esty, but climate change will exacerbate
issues known to be linked to conflict.
***************************************************
Summer Programs, Courses, Internships, Meetings, Opportunities
(SABBATICAL OPPORTUNITY) Visiting Research Fellowship – Climatology
- University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, (Australia)
The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia,
calls for applications to fill the position for a visiting research
fellow in the area of climatology. It is expected that the visiting
research fellow has demonstrated expertise in climate dynamics,
physical oceanography, and the atmospheric sciences utilising general
circulation models of the atmosphere/ocean/climate system and
analysing large observational and simulated climate data. Financial
support is available for international travel, housing and living
stipend.
The fellowship may support a visiting research scientist during
six months sabbatical leave from their home institution. It is
anticipated that the visitor will continue to hold a salaried
position at their home institution during the term of the fellowship.
The visiting fellow will work in close collaboration with
Associate Professor Joachim Ribbe. For an overview of past and
current research see http://eprints.usq.edu.au.
Interested candidates may wish to contact A/Professor Ribbe for
further details or submit a CV, publication list, and a description
of their proposed research project to be completed during the term of
the fellowship. Deadline for applications is June 30, 2007.
***************************************************
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) Post-doc - Lake Superior Carbon Cycle Postdoctoral Scholar -
Center for Climatic Research - University of Wisconsin – Madison
(USA)
A postdoctoral scholar is sought to investigate the carbon cycle
of Lake Superior. The successful candidate will help develop and
utilize a coupled physical / ecological / biogeochemical model of
Lake Superior and be an integral part of a team that includes lake
and terrestrial scientists seeking to understand air-lake CO2 fluxes
and their importance to the regional carbon budget. Applications are
welcomed from candidates with backgrounds in ocean or lake
biogeochemistry, and with experience or a strong interest in learning
numerical modeling.
This is a one-year renewable position based on progress, ideally
to begin in September 2007. Interested applicants should forward a
curriculum vitae, contact information for three references and at
least one publication to Dr. Galen McKinley (galen at aos.wisc.edu,
www.aos.wisc.edu/~galen). Review of applications will begin July 31,
2007. The position will remain open until a candidate is identified.
********************
(JOB 2) Research fellow - Socio-political nature of water - Oxford
University Centre for the Environment
http://www.ouce.ox.ac.uk/news/jobs/070523.php
Oxford University Centre for the Environment is seeking
applications for the Louwes Water Research Fellow. The ideal
candidate is likely to have recently completed a PhD and have peer-
reviewed publications that demonstrate outstanding research in any
area of water research, including the socio-political nature of water
and / or development studies. Researchers from developing countries
are particularly encouraged to apply. The post will be based in the
Oxford Centre for Water Research, which is hosted by the OUCE, and is
internationally-recognised as a centre for excellence in
interdisciplinary water research. Deadline for applications is 15 July.
********************
(JOB 3) Program Officer - Social Measures: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Washington, D.C. (USA)
www.worldwildlife.org/about/jobs.cfm (Position not listed until
sometime after June 8)
Pending final approval, WWF-US will soon officially announce a
new job opportunity for a Program Officer - Social Measures within
its Conservation Science Program in Washington, DC. This person
will work with me, other members of the Conservation Science Program,
and WWF field programs to develop and implement strategies for
measuring and monitoring conservation-relevant social data. This
foundational initiative is currently funded for one year, though
additional support may become available if initial efforts
demonstrate promise.
Please check the WWF-US jobs website over the next week or so for
the official position annoucement (www.worldwildlife.org/about/
jobs.cfm).
Title: Program Officer - Social Measures
Location: Washington, DC
I. Major Function
World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the global conservation organization,
seeks a Program Officer for its Conservation Science Program. In
collaboration with the WWF Senior Social Scientist, this Program
Officer will plan, coordinate, communicate, and implement WWF's
efforts to monitor the social impacts of its conservation
interventions and the social factors that foster/hinder conservation
success ( i.e., "social measures"). The Program Officer will conduct
research and analysis, develop monitoring frameworks, provide
technical assistance to WWF field programs, and disseminate results.
II. Major Duties & Responsibilities
1. Review existing approaches to measuring social impacts
of conservation interventions and the social factors that foster/
hinder conservation success (i.e., "social measures"). Monitor and
analyze new technical information, policy developments, and trends
related to "social measures" and advise others accordingly.
Responsible for gathering published and unpublished information from
governmental agencies, universities, and other nongovernmental
organizations.
2. Collaboratively develop WWF "social measures" framework
and identify appropriate social indicators in select WWF Priority
Places.
3. Provide technical support to select WWF Priority Places
that are collecting and analyzing "social measures." Collaboratively
develop and disseminate guidance regarding methods and tools for
collecting and analyzing "social measures" in select WWF Priority
Places.
4. Collaboratively develop and deliver "social measures"
training in select WWF Priority Places.
5. Collaboratively synthesize and communicate results from
"social measures" activities for diverse audiences, including WWF
staff, donors, scientists, and others.
6. Support project management by facilitating "social
measures" planning, coordination, communication, implementation,
reporting, and fundraising. Work directly with project personnel,
grantees, donors, consultants, and others.
7. Support WWF efforts to develop a social policy and pre-
project social impact assessment guidelines.
8. Perform other duties as assigned.
III. Working Relationships
1. Internal: Daily contact with other program staff and
departments to advise and coordinate project activities or to obtain
and disseminate information.
2. External: Interacts regularly with representatives of
WWF-International, other WWF NOs and P.O.s, and associate
organizations, grantees, consultants. Communicates regularly with
representatives of conservation organizations, universities, NGOs,
corporations, and/or government agencies.
IV. Supervisory Responsibility
May indirectly supervise one or more support staff. May
supervise the work of consultants and/or interns.
V. Minimum Requirements
1. Education/Experience: A Bachelor's degree is
required. A graduate degree in the social sciences (anthropology,
economics, human geography, political science, psychology, sociology,
etc.) is preferred. Position requires three years of experience in
international biodiversity conservation or a related field;
experience in performance measurement and program evaluation preferred.
2. Skills and Abilities
· Excellent organizational skills
· Excellent research and writing skills
· Strong analytic skills; quantitative skills a plus
· Strong project management skills
· Ability to operate effectively with independence and under
pressure to meet deadlines and commitments
· Ability to operate effectively as a team member with a wide
range of individuals across cultures and time zones
· Ability to work on initiatives with multiple and competing
priorities
· Good interpersonal skills
· Fluent English; additional language skills a plus
********************
(JOBS 4) Lecturer, Teaching Fellows - Physical and Human Geography: 5
jobs open at St. Andrews (Scotland)
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/vacancies
(This is one of 5 open positions listed) Lecturer in Geography -
Sustainable Development. School of Geography and Geosciences,
University of St Andrews (Scotland)
We are seeking a highly motivated researcher with interests in
any area of geography/sustainable development and a commitment to
excellence in teaching. The appointment follows the introduction of
an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree in Sustainable Development
at St Andrews in 2004, hosted by the School, and the establishment
of The St Andrews Sustainability Institute (SASI) in 2006 to co-
ordinate research activities across the University.
You will have completed a PhD in Geography, or a cognate
discipline, and have a developing profile of academic publication.
Candidates with research interests in any part of Geography relevant
to sustainable development will be considered, but preference may be
given to those who have participated in interdisciplinary research
and whose interests span the natural and social sciences. Teaching
experience at university level would also be an advantage.
The post will start on 1 September 2007, or as soon as possible
thereafter.
Informal enquiries to Dr Elspeth Graham (Tel. 01334 462894;
email: efg at st-andrews.ac.uk ) or Dr Charles Warren, Tel: 01334
463693; email: crw2 at st-andrews.ac.uk
Closing Date: Friday 8 June 2007 Please quote ref: PS230/07
Application forms and further particulars are available from
Human Resources, University of St Andrews, College Gate, North
Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, (tel: 01334 462571, by fax 01334
462570 or by e-mail Jobline at st-andrews.ac.uk. The advertisement and
further particulars can be viewed at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/
recruitment/vacancies.
********************
(JOBS 5) Post Doc Positions - Land Cover and Land Use Change and
Carbon Dynamics - Department of Geography and Environment, Boston
University (USA)
Applications are sought for one or two postdoc positions in the
general area of land cover and land use change, and the implications
of forest change on carbon dynamics. Opportunities will exist to
work closely with the USGS/NASA Landsat Science Team, the NASA Land
Cover and Land Use Change Science Team and the Land Cover
Implementation Team of GOFC/GOLD. Expertise in remote sensing and
ecosystem processes is desired. There may be opportunities to
participate in teaching in support of development of skills for
future faculty positions.
Please send inquiries or applications to Curtis Woodcock,
Department of Geography and Environment, Boston University, 675
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston Ma 02215. Consideration of applicants
will commence when applications arrive.
If possible, use email (curtis at bu.edu) for all inquiries and
applications (or for questions call 617-353-5746).
For applications please include your resume, a brief statement of
career objectives and research interests, and the names and contact
information for 3 references.
**************************************************
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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