How Much Can Forests Fight Climate Change? A Sensor in Space Has Answers.
New York Times, December 8, 2023
Quoted: Lisa Naughton, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, Center for Ecology and the Environment, faculty affiliate
“Nearly all protected areas are becoming much more accessible and much more vulnerable … Not just to local subsistence hunting and illicit timber extraction, but to things like artisanal mining and road penetration.”
Anyone Can Help Monarch Butterflies. All You Need is a Yard.
National Geographic, December 14, 2023
Quoted: Karen Oberhauser, faculty affiliate
“Karen Oberhauser, the director of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and the founder of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, advises against rearing monarchs in captivity on a large scale or for more than a single generation, since captivity may disrupt the development of their navigational abilities and, over time, can alter their genetic makeup.”
Can Offshore Great Lakes Projects Get a Second Wind?
WXPR, December 22, 2023
Quoted: Greg Nemet, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, faculty affiliate
“Nemet pointed out land-based wind farms are prominent in other parts of the Midwest. Wisconsin is not known for its wind, but Nemet stressed lake winds are strong, and in the push for clean energy, it is hard to rule out an offshore project eventually being floated in places like Wisconsin.”
Endangered Species Act’s 50th Anniversary: What Six Northwest Animals Can Tell Us
The Columbian, December 25, 2023
Quoted: Adrian Treves, faculty member
“Gray wolves are a resilient species, Treves said. And they don’t tend to congregate in one place; rather, when a pack grows too large they’ll instinctively spread out. But protections aren’t evenly spread, Treves said, in large part thanks to a lack of a national recovery plan from federal officials.”
PFAS Lawsuits Involve Complex Science and Law, but Settlements Can Be Worth Millions
Wisconsin Public Radio, January 1, 2024
Quoted: Steph Tai, Associate Dean for Education and Faculty Affairs, faculty affiliate
“There can be some ability to trace that, because each company would be producing, potentially, different types of PFAS that could be linked back to them.”
Madison Trees: Residents Protest a ‘Silent’ Deforestation
The Cap Times, January 3, 2024
Quoted: Michael Notaro, Center for Climatic Research
“This is a critical space for people, especially with enhanced warming from climate change. If you remove that, you have more urban heat islands, you have more local warming, you lose carbon to the atmosphere, you increase the amount of solar radiation coming in … Large removal of trees is not a good option.”
U.S. In Deep Freeze While Much of the World Is Extra Toasty? Yet Again, It’s Climate Change
AP News, January 16, 2024
Quoted: Steve Vavrus, State Climatology Office, Center for Climatic Research, Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts
“… The polar vortex outbreaks have become more frequent in recent decades. The idea is the jet stream — the upper air circulation that drives weather — is wavier in amplified global warming, said University of Wisconsin–Madison climate scientist Steve Vavrus.”