Choosing individual actions for climate change can take many forms. Drawing on an analysis of elections and their impact on climate policy, offset against other forms of climate action, Seth Wynes argues for the effectiveness of supporting politicians …
Category: Climate
What is the Cumulative Impact of Human Activity on the World’s Oceans?
Have you ever wondered what the impact is of human activity on the world’s oceans? In short, a lot. This animation shows the cumulative impacts of human activity on the oceans. Green represents areas with less impact, and red represents areas that experience much greater impact. A study by Dr. Kenneth Casey in Feb 2008 […]
White House Climate Data Initiative Addresses Climate Change Through Open Data
On March 19, 2014, the White House launched the Climate Data Initiative (CDI), part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan launched in June 2013. The Climate Action Plan is the Administration’s blueprint for domestic and international efforts to prepare for the impacts of climate change and reduce carbon emissions. The CDI is meant to spur …
Eyes of the World: Interview with George Jungbluth of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
This post is part of our ongoing NDSA innovation group’s Insights interview series. Scientific data is the biggest of the “big data.” In fact, research data and increased complexity and volume of data are two of the challenges addressed by the National Agenda for Digital Stewardship. To find out more about the data preservation and […]
Using long-term data sets to trace the impacts of environmental policy
Salmon Pond in Maine, one of the bodies of water from our study.
Just before I became a staff scientist at NEON, I and colleagues from the University of Colorado, Environmental Protection Agency, and University of Maine took a new a look at some long-term data to help answer a question that has been perplexing scientists for several decades: Why is the amount of dissolved organic matter (the stuff that gives water that brownish-yellowish tint) increasing in lakes and streams of the northeastern United States and Europe? Our study contributed to growing evidence suggesting that it’s a symptom of recovery from acid rain.…