The 2024 Harnessing the Heartland meeting is focused on working out the structure and function of a multi-institution consortium for atmospheric science and climate resilience. The meeting will build on the momentum from the recent meeting at the University of Nebraska, where strengths, capabilities, and potential collaborations were discussed around the theme of utilizing earth observations for improving public health.
In the last 200 years, Iowa’s prairies and other wildlands have been transformed into vast agricultural fields. This massive conversion has provided us with food, fiber, and fuel in abundance. But it has also robbed Iowa’s land of its native resilience and created the environmental problems that today challenge our everyday lives: polluted waters, increasing floods, loss and degradation of rich prairie topsoil, compromised natural systems, and now climate change.
FORMAT FOR PROPOSAL
Up to two pages. List the participant(s), succinctly state the idea, provide a statement of need or rationale, describe the approach and the end product or outcome. Submit single-spaced, 1-inch margins, 11-point font.
The WMO Executive Council has approved a Global Greenhouse Gas Watch (G3W) implementation plan to strengthen monitoring of heat-trapping gases which are driving climate change and to inform climate mitigation.
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heatwaves
Air quality and climate change must be tackled together
The European heatwave of 2022 led to more ozone pollution
Wildfire smoke harms human, ecosystem and crop health
Parks and trees can ease “urban heat islands”
Geneva 6 September 2023 (WMO) - Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of heatwaves.
A research led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) (a team including former CGRER PhD Meng Gao) has developed a statistical model which uses patterns of springtime warming in the western Pacific Ocean, western Indian Ocean and Ross Sea to predict the frequency of summertime co-occurrence of heat wave and air pollution in China.
Rising seas, toxic rivers, deforestation, and smoke-filled air headlines remind us daily of the local, national, and international impacts of climate change. Join us for a wild pecha kucha ride through the effects of climate change with researchers who also tirelessly seek solutions. World-renowned climate scientist, Jerald Schnoor will open with big-picture issues.
University of Iowa engineering professor, Dr. Gregory R. Carmichael, will co-chair the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch (G3W), a new program of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The WMO’s initiative was unanimously passed by the 193 member nations of the WMO Congress on June 2. Press Release
The University of Iowa's Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) scientists are completing air-quality post-analysis of the observations made during ASIA-AQ. This work is ongoing on The University of Iowa campus.
The Resolutions involve the following three provisions: Promoting and incentivizing (primarily through the auspices of Soil and Water Conservation) a.) Reductions in rates of application of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, b.) Reductions in tillage passes, and c.) Annual, randomized soil testing in public rights-of-way.
2023 was another year in which global and regional temperatures broke multiple records, and distant heat-exacerbated wildfires degraded Iowa’s air quality. Scientists continue to find that warming temperatures in the global atmosphere and ocean, caused largely by greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel combustion, are interconnected and are a root cause of increasing regional weather disasters1.
CGRER and UI Faculty members Stanier, Carmichael, and Thorne published in academic journal, "The Conversation". Canada’s seemingly endless wildfires in 2023 introduced millions of people across North America to the health hazards of wildfire smoke. While Western states have contended with smoky fire seasons for years, the air quality alerts across the U.S. Midwest and Northeast this summer reached levels never seen there before.
At CGRER, we believe coping with environmental change requires objective research data to make informed decisions.
Though we're a research institute first and foremost, we also stress education and outreach efforts to help Iowans better understand the environmental challenges we face. We aim to provide research findings on key environmental impacts to decision-makers at all levels, so that they may make more informed choices.