Moving Forward on Climate Change and Professional Ethics
A few weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that atmospheric CO2 concentrations, at 419 ppm, have now reached 150% of their pre-industrial levels – the highest in more than four million years, when sea levels were about 24 meters higher, the global average surface temperature almost 4ºC warmer than today, and the first modern humans had more than three million years yet to appear on earth. The world-historical COVID-19 pandemic, still…
Introducing the “Climate Action Task Force”
In response to the current climate crisis, last spring we circulated a petition among various geography listservs requesting that the AAG Council take significant action “to reduce CO2 emissions related to the Annual Meeting.” The petition asked that the “Council do so in a manner commensurate with what the recent (October 2018) Intergovernmental Panel on…
AAG Members Publish New Book on Florida Weather and Climate
AAG members Jennifer M. Collins, associate professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida; Robert V. Rohli, professor of geography at Louisiana State University; and colleague Charles H. Paxton, an American Meteorological Society certified consulting meteorologist, just published, Florida Weather and Climate: More Than Just Sunshine. The book explores the conditions, forces, and…
AAG Statement on the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) opposes the Trump Administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Climate change constitutes a major threat to the Earth’s environment and to the well-being of people in all nations and there is a substantial body of evidence that global climate change is driven by human-induced causes.…
James Hansen To Address Climate Change at AAG Annual Meeting
James Hansen, courtesy NASA James Hansen, known for his climate research and his Congressional testimony on climate change that raised awareness of global warming, will deliver a featured talk on climate change, moderated by AAG President Glen MacDonald, at the AAG annual meeting in Boston on April 7, 2017. Hansen received a in physics and mathematics, an in…
The Long, Hot Summer
It has been a long, hot summer. In July, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released its analysis of global temperatures for the first six months of 2016. Each of these months has set a record for global temperatures. Taken together, this marks the warmest six-month period since the record began in 1880. The…
Geographies of Bread and Water in the 21st Century
Geography is a big discipline, both in terms of its global purview and the wide spectrum of scholarly perspectives geographers bring to bear. We should not be shy about applying ourselves to some of the biggest and most complex problems facing the world. What could be a more critical problem then providing bread and water…
AAG Past President’s Address by Julie Winkler
Julie Winkler will deliver her AAG Past President's Address at the AAG Annual Meeting in Chicago on Thursday, April 23, 2015. Embracing the Complexity and Uncertainty of Climate Change Climate change is one of the defining environmental concerns of our time, and will directly or indirectly affect every sector of society. The complexity of the climate system…
International Student-Fellows to Present Climate Impact Studies at NASA
Fourteen students from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas have learned to use satellite data and mapping technologies to address climate change issues in their regions. On Thursday, April 3, 2014, those students will present and discuss their efforts at NASA Headquarters. The public event will begin at 9 in the James E. Webb Auditorium…
Member to Appear in Showtime Series on Climate Change
AAG member and Environmental Defense Fund fellow Nekya Young will appear in an episode of "Years of Living Dangerously," a Showtime documentary series focusing on climate change. In the episode, Jessica Alba explores how EDF Climate Corps fellows, such as Young, work to make businesses more environmentally friendly. Young worked with the AAG last year…
Winkler’s Presidential Plenary to Kick Off Climate Change Theme
Climate change is a major environmental challenge facing humankind today. Geographies of Climate Change, a featured theme for the upcoming AAG Annual Meeting in Tampa, highlights the complex spatial dimensions of climate change including the observed and anticipated geographical differentiation in potential impacts and vulnerability. The theme will address such topics as the scientific complexity…
Climate Variability and Change: Embracing Complexity and Uncertainty
Last spring, at a listening session I attended on climate variability and change in northwestern Michigan, a local fruit grower summarized his concerns with the analogy that his industry is the "canary in the coal mine" for the potential impacts of climate variability and change on agriculture. This statement was motivated by the sensitivity of…