A look at how climate is altering whole ecosystems, from the Arctic to the tropics
Building community capacity
Communities everywhere will need new skills to adapt to change
SPECIAL SECTION
Remembering George Woodwell
While conducting September
In June 2024, a team from Woodwell Climate were in Alaska to visit the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge and meet with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Fire Service, and the Gwichyaa Zhee (Fort Yukon) community and Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. / photo by Brendan Rogers
CLIMATE science for CHANGE
Climate Science for Change is published by Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Woodwell Climate Research Center conducts science for solutions at the nexus of climate, people and nature. We partner with leaders and communities for just, meaningful impact to address the climate crisis.
PRESIDENT AND CEO
Dr. R. Max Holmes
CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
Dr. Heather M. H. Goldstone
SCIENCE WRITER AND EDITOR
Sarah Ruiz
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Julianne Waite
COPY EDITING
Margaret Lin
IMAGES
Ben Baldwin, Monica Caparas, Tierney Cross, Erica Camille Photography, Erin Towns Photography, Gary Evon, Greg Fiske, Peter Frumhoff, Nigel Golden, Jillian Greene, Tommy Hillmer, Illuminati Filmes, Lucas Guaraldo Itaborahy, Jonathan Kopeliovich, Nolan Kitts, Mitch Korolev, Chris Linder, Kayla Mathes, Christina Minions, Sue Natali, Sara Raira Leal Pereira, Porque No Studios, Brendan Rogers, Christina Shintani, Dee Sullivan/MinFin Photography, Daniel Webb
WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER 149 Woods Hole Road Falmouth, MA 02540
All material appearing in Climate Science for Change is copyrighted unless otherwise stated or it may rest with the provider of the supplied material. Climate Science for Change takes care to ensure information is correct at time of printing.
Woodwell Climate Research Center is located on the traditional and sacred land of the Wampanoag people who still occupy this land, and whose history, language, traditional ways of life, and culture continue to influence this vibrant community.
2024 field work in Araguaia State Park in Brazil, Dr. Manoela Machado frequently found herself in poor air quality from the fires in the region. / photo by Manoela Machado
From R. Max Holmes, President & CEO
A living legacy
On June 18 of this year, we lost a climate science pioneer and visionary—our founder, Dr. George Woodwell. Just over a month later, dozens of friends and colleagues gathered here at the Center with George’s family to remember and celebrate his incredible professional and personal legacy. In the pages that follow, you can read excerpts from comments made that day by Woodwell Climate staff, including my reflections on George’s incredible mentorship. Here, I want to share a bit more about just how much George’s work continues to infuse and influence everything we do, as it is a truly remarkable testament to his scientific insight.
The thread that ran through all of George’s own research was forests. He tackled the biggest environmental issues of the late twentieth century, including nuclear radiation to DDT, in each case asking “how does this affect forests?” And he was never content to simply increase our understanding of a problem; he insisted on taking that new knowledge into the public sphere to inform better decision-making.
By the early 1980s, he had turned his attention to the so-called ‘carbon dioxide problem,’ and he enlisted a brilliant young scientist, Dr. Richard (Skee) Houghton to figure out just how much carbon dioxide forests around the globe were absorbing. Today, Woodwell Climate scientists continue to be leaders in quantifying and monitoring how much carbon is held in the world’s forests, as well as other land-based ecosystems, and in understanding forests’ multidimensional role in our climate system—yes, carbon storage, and also water cycling and physical cooling mechanisms.
George was early to recognize the importance of forests as climate solutions, and the need for pragmatic mechanisms to protect them. In 1999, he was instrumental in a World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development report that coined the phrase Forest Capital Index, suggesting a quantitative measure of forests’ ecological value, translated into dollar terms. Today, Woodwell Climate scientists are developing a Landscape Capital Index that will provide a quantitative assessment of carbon, water, biodiversity, climate resilience, and more, of landscapes on a global scale, so that land stewards can be fairly compensated for the nature-based climate solutions they provide.
While George’s own work focused on forests, his thinking about the role of the natural world in our climate system was broad. In 1986, when George testified in the first major congressional hearing on climate change, he not only extolled the value of forests but also cautioned that warming and thawing of the Arctic could result in the release of greenhouse gasses that would worsen climate change. “The warming begets warming,” he would say. Today, one of our largest projects, Permafrost Pathways, focuses on exactly this issue and is bringing together scientists, Indigenous communities, and policymakers at all levels to address this critical risk.
Our climate risk work with communities and governments around the world is one of the Center’s newest areas of work and the ties back to George are less obvious. But George was passionate about the idea that science could, and should, play a critical role in addressing the world’s greatest social ills, including poverty, hunger, disease, and inequality. Climate change is, as they say, a threat multiplier for all of these. And our Just Access project is rooted in the philosophy that all communities need and deserve the best climate risk information to enable them to build the most resilient, sustainable future possible. With each passing year, increasingly extreme weather events and the disproportionate toll they take on marginalized communities and populations make this work increasingly imperative—and I think it would make George proud.
These sorts of throughlines can be found in nearly all of our projects, which is a remarkable testament to the breadth and depth of George’s scientific leadership. Indeed, George’s vision for innovation and sustainability is infused in the very walls of our campus, which he helped design for energy efficiency, connection to nature and each other, and not least, beauty.
But perhaps George’s most important legacy was his determination—an amazing ability to stay outraged and yet optimistic, and to never stop fighting for what was right. That attitude influenced more than one career (including my own) during George’s lifetime, and the effect continues to ripple. Those qualities have never been more needed.
Onward,
Air quality monitoring to machine learning: Fund for Climate Solutions awards six new grants
The
2024 summer cohort of FCS projects drives impact through collaboration and building technical capacity
The second round of 2024 Fund for Climate Solutions (FCS) awardees has been announced. The FCS advances innovative, solutions-oriented climate science through a competitive, internal, and cross-disciplinary funding process. Generous donor support has enabled us to raise more than $10 million towards the FCS, funding 69 research grants since 2018. The latest cohort of grantees includes three projects focused on driving impact through collaboration and community-building, and three projects exploring new horizons in technology with timely policy relevance.
Arctic
wildfire
pollutants: Towards improving emissions estimates and developing tribally-led monitoring
Project lead: Dr. Scott Zolkos
Collaborators: Dr. Brendan Rogers, Dr. Sue Natali, Dr. Kyle Arndt, Dr. Elise Sunderland (Harvard University)
Increasing wildfire activity in northern high-latitude regions is threatening global climate goals and public health. When organic matter in soils and vegetation burns, greenhouse gasses, fine particulates (PM2.5), and contaminants including mercury are released to the environment. Currently, there is sparse data for understanding how wildfires contribute to the northern mercury cycle, as well as gaps in infrastructure for monitoring PM2.5 in Alaska Native communities. This project will develop a network to measure and monitor the release of mercury and PM2.5 from wildfire, with an emphasis on peatlands. Leveraging ongoing work by Permafrost Pathways, the team will install mercury sampling equipment on existing eddy covariance flux towers across Alaska and Canada. Alongside Permafrost Pathways and their tribal partners, the team will also consult with Alaska Native communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to co-develop a tribally-led air quality monitoring program.
Bringing confidence to carbon markets through improved monitoring
Project lead: Seth Gorelik
Collaborator: Dr. Wayne Walker
The protection, improved management, and restoration of forests are key nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, yet implementation and maintenance of these forest-based solutions requires sustainable and substantial financing. The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has the potential to deliver the necessary level of financing; however, a significant gap exists between its potential and actual performance. Improving the accuracy of forest carbon monitoring is crucial for the VCM to deliver effective, meaningful climate change mitigation. This project will enhance the credibility and effectiveness of forest carbon markets by evaluating new remote sensing methods for measuring forest carbon and showing that these methods provide more robust data than the conventional approach. Research findings could lead to updated global standards and policies for issuing carbon credits, which would increase market confidence and promote sustainable forest management.
A Permafrost Pathways team member performs maintenance on an eddy covariance flux tower in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. / photo by Christina Minions Maine’s Howland Forest tree canopy. / photo by Jonathan Kopeliovich
Pathways of carbon metabolism under cover crops
Project lead: Dr. Taniya RoyChowdhury
Collaborator: Dr. Jonathan Sanderman
Sequestering, or capturing carbon in soils has a high potential to mitigate climate change. It is challenging to specifically predict how successful carbon sequestration may be, as current models used to evaluate agronomic management oversimplify soil microbial properties. This project will test for the key pathways of carbon transformations using soil samples taken under cover crops from a long-term study site. The team will quantify the chemical diversity of carbon substrates that microbes in the soil take up, and use data mining to predict the impacts of that diversity on soil carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. The research outcomes will also lay a foundation for future collaborative research within the Department of Energy scientific community, and the soil health research community more broadly.
Soil Spectroscopy for Global Good network
Project lead: Dr. José Lucas Safanelli
Collaborator: Dr. Jonathan Sanderman
The Soil Spectroscopy for Global Good (SS4GG) initiative is a collaborative network of hundreds of soil scientists and others focused on using soil spectroscopy as a means to generate high-quality soil data at significantly reduced costs. It was created in 2020 by the Woodwell Climate Research Center, the University of Florida, and the OpenGeoHub Foundation (the Netherlands) with support from many national and international institutions and researchers.
Soil samples in the lab. / photo by Dee Sullivan/MinFin Photography
SS4GG created and supports the Open Soil Spectral Library (OSSL), an open source of soil spectroscopy data, and a broad community of practitioners uses the library and collaborates on related science. This award will extend the activities of the SS4GG initiative with a focus on training and further engagement with the soil science community. The project team will continue to add data sets and new models to the OSSL, as well as engage with the soil science community by attending international conferences and providing a training workshop. The funds will also support hosting a visiting soil biogeochemist at the Woodwell Climate campus—Dr. Raj Setia from the Punjab Remote Sensing Center.
Workshop: Innovative sensors and applications in environmental research
Project lead: Kathleen Savage
Collaborators: Zoë Dietrich, Dr. Marcia Macedo
Many of the Woods Hole science community’s cuttingedge researchers, including several scientists at Woodwell Climate, are developing creative, do-it-yourself (DIY) tools using relatively simple components to further explore their research questions. However, despite the six institutions’ similar applications and geographic proximity, there are few opportunities for exchange and knowledge, both across Woods Hole institutions and more broadly with Cape Cod educational institutions. The project team will convene a one-day workshop to bring together aquatic, atmospheric, and terrestrial science researchers and educators from the Woods Hole science community and local community colleges. The event will focus on three main themes: development of new sensor systems that use existing technologies in novel ways; new data storage or transmission solutions; and community initiatives to facilitate continued creation and sharing of new technologies. Sessions will foster knowledge exchange, build networks, and develop community resources focused on innovative DIY research solutions, and a hybrid virtual option will be offered for oral presentations to broaden participation.
Future of Soil Spectroscopy workshop at the 2023 Agronomy, Crop, and Soil Science Society meeting. / photo courtesy of Jonathan Sanderman
Zoë Dietrich builds an autonomous methane chamber. / photo by Mitch Korolev
Applying machine learning models to link river hydrology and fire risk forecasting in the Amazon
Project lead: Dr. Andréa D. de Almeida Castanho
Collaborator: Dr. Michael Coe, Dr. Marcia Macedo
In recent decades, extreme drought events have increased forest flammability, fire severity, and the likelihood of fire escaping and spreading into adjacent forests and working lands, as illustrated by the wildfires seen throughout Amazonia during the 2023-24 drought. The project team will explore the potential of using river stage (water level) data as a proxy for landscape dryness, to ultimately reveal the short-term risk of wildfires spreading into forests. If confirmed, this innovative hypothesis could provide the scientific basis for developing new metrics of river stage to improve early-warning systems that forecast high fire risk days to weeks in advance. These improvements would create benefits not only for tropical forest protection, but also for biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and human health.
A stream in the Amazon forest. / photo by Mitch Korolev
By the numbers
INSIGHTS FROM RECENT WOODWELL CLIMATE PUBLICATIONS
50 % 2 3
Two-thirds of global forest carbon sink from 19902019 was countered by deforestation
doi.org/10.1038/s41586-02407602-x
A fifty percent reduction in rock glacier habitat in the western U.S. is expected as result of current warming
doi.org/10.1017/jog.2024.56
DIY methane chamber designs inspire research groups across the country
Research Assistant Zoë Dietrich’s lowcost chambers are making carbon flux sampling more accessible
Sarah Ruiz Science Writer and Editor
The MacGyver session at the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference is full to the brim with scientists showing off blinking circuit boards and 3D-printed mechanisms. Research Assistant, Zoë Dietrich, stands in front of her poster and a plexiglass cube sprouting wires. As she speaks, a whizzing sound emanates from the box as it lifts itself up on one side, holding itself open long enough to flush the interior with air from the room. A laptop screen reads out numbers from the sensors in the box, detailing changes in the
concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane within.
Dietrich constructed this device herself. It’s a low-cost, autonomous, solar-powered chamber designed to float on water and measure the flow of carbon into and out of the water. Dietrich has spent the past 1.5 years testing and troubleshooting various prototypes, and has already begun deploying models at research sites in Brazil and Alaska. Now she’s sharing her work with the broader scientific community in hopes of encouraging others to build their own versions.
“One of the goals of the chamber project is to make the construction very accessible so that scientists like me, without formal engineering training or background, can build the chambers pretty easily,” says Dietrich.
This was good news for Grand Valley University masters student, Jillian Greene, and her professor Dr. Sean Woznicki, who encountered Dietrich and her chambers at AGU. Though neither of them had experience with mechanical or electrical engineering, they knew immediately a device like Dietrich’s could be invaluable to their research.
Greene’s project involves sampling carbon emissions at drowned river mouth estuaries connected to Lake Michigan. She and Woznicki will then correlate that data with other
ecological characteristics gleaned from satellite imagery. There are over one hundred of these freshwater estuary-like features around the region, and Greene and Woznicki are hoping to paint a complete picture of their cumulative role in carbon cycling.
“Originally, I was going to manually sample and quantify with a gas chromatograph,” Greene says. That’s a time-consuming process that limits the amount of data one team can collect.
With the chambers, however, Greene can collect emissions data every 30 seconds—greatly expanding the amount of data she’ll be able to incorporate into her models.
“This is going to make our model a lot more robust and hopefully applicable to other drowned river mouth estuaries in the region,” says Greene.
Greene and her research team have already created and deployed six chambers. Since AGU, she has been in contact with Dietrich, troubleshooting issues as they arise and learning an entirely new set of skills as she goes.
“[The team] has learned how to solder, how to interpret the circuit diagrams, problem solve, and adjust for our kind of unique systems that we’re looking at,” says Woznicki. “It’s really been exciting to use Zoë’s design as a learning experience for masters and undergrad students.”
Dietrich has had other groups at Colgate University and the University of California, Berkeley reach out to her as well, and she is planning to publish a paper this fall that will include detailed instructions for anyone else to construct their own chambers. She’s already shared preliminary drafts of the stepby-step instructions, including photos, diagrams, and tips, as well as programming and data-processing code and a specific materials list with the other research groups. In turn, they have provided her with helpful revisions and ideas for new modifications. Dietrich is excited about the prospect of the designs being implemented by more people. More chambers means more data, which benefits the entire scientific community.
“Our sampling of carbon right now is limited by expensive instruments and where people can go and who has access to these resources,” says Dietrich. “But the goal of this project is to be low cost and more accessible to a broader set of researchers. The chambers are autonomous, and so are accessible to places and times that aren’t otherwise being sampled right now. And taking that a step further, we need to make them accessible to be built by anyone.”
Jillian Greene deploys her methane monitoring chamber based on designs by Zoë Dietrich. / photo courtesy of Jillian Greene
Reasons for hope: Impact updates
JUNE
Woodwell Climate and IPAM Amazônia mark the 20th anniversary of Tanguro Field Station with a symposium convening agricultural producers, scientists, public officials, and Indigenous peoples to reflect on learnings of the past two decades and to chart a path forward for Amazon forest research and conservation.
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) introduces the FORECASTS Tracking Act—new legislation that would for the first time consider the importance of monitoring permafrost thaw as part of a broader effort to improve U.S. weather forecasting and modeling, and support cutting-edge tools and resources to better track this serious environmental hazard in the North.
Experts from Woodwell Climate Research Center issue public comment urging the IRS and Treasury Department to adopt more rigorous guardrails regarding the use of wood for bioenergy in the agencies’ proposed guidance on clean electricity tax credits.
Woodwell Climate Board members, senior leaders, and scientists participate in more than a dozen Congressional meetings during the Center’s Third Annual DC Fly-in. Topics included climate security, the need for national climate services to provide risk information for communities at scale, opportunities to advance natural climate solutions through the Farm Bill, and the devastating impacts of permafrost thaw on Alaska Native communities.
woodwellclimate.org/climate-policy-fly-in-2024
At Climate Week NYC, Woodwell Climate, IPAM Amazônia, and the Governor of Pará, Brazil sign a memorandum of understanding to address the local impacts of climate change in Belém (the site of COP30 in 2025) and throughout the Amazon.
Permafrost Pathways’ work on Arctic and boreal wildfires takes center stage at the Arctic Circle Assembly, with one panelist displaying a Woodwell-generated map and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski citing statistics from our research and noting our pilot project on fire suppression in Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge as a promising solution.
Read more about the featured work: woodwellclimate.org/fire-suppression-yukon-flatsnational-wildlife-refuge/
NOVEMBER
A delegation of Woodwell Climate scientists and policy experts participates in the COP29 UN climate negotiations, hosting a dozen panel discussions, convening with partners from Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and urging greater ambition and urgency on forest protection, sustainable agriculture, Indigenous rights, and global adaptation goals.
woodwellclimate.org/cop29
Woodwell’s scientific inquiries hit on the biggest environmental issues of the late twentieth century, including DDT, nuclear radiation, and what was known at the time as “the carbon dioxide problem.” His testimony at the first Congressional hearing on climate change in 1986 was remarkably prescient, and the issues he brought forth there— the threat of permafrost thaw, the importance of forests—have been enduring pillars of the Center’s work.
In a time when the biological sciences were increasingly focused on the molecular and cellular level, Woodwell was steadfast in pursuing an ecosystem-level understanding of the natural world. He started and led ecological research programs within the University of Maine, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, before coming to the conclusion that the most pressing and important work required a new and independent organization of its own—one that not only conducted science, but actively influenced decision-making. Founded in 1984 as the Woods Hole Research Center, we later renamed ourselves Woodwell Climate Research Center, and George Woodwell’s vision continues to guide our work today.
Woodwell was also instrumental in the founding of several preeminent American environmental advocacy organizations— Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and World Resources Institute. He also recognized the need for international policy and governance to address
Remembering Dr. George Woodwell
With the passing of Dr. George Woodwell on June 18, 2024, we lost a pioneer and a visionary, a deeply good person, and for many in our community, a mentor and dear friend.
climate change, guided by global scientific expertise. He played important roles in the creation of what became the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was recognized in 2007 with a Nobel Peace Prize, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—the treaty that has driven international climate negotiations for more than thirty years.
In addition to his intellect and foresight, Woodwell’s energy, wisdom, and wit were captivating. He had the remarkable ability to sustain both outrage at environmental destruction, and an abiding love of the natural world, using both to pilot us towards his positive vision of a better world for all, which he shared in his 2016 book, A World to Live In
The family welcomes gifts in George’s memory made to the George M. Woodwell Endowment Fund at Woodwell Climate Research Center. woodwellclimate.org/ george-woodwell-fund
Woodwell leaves behind many devoted friends and family members, most especially his wife Katharine, who played her own integral role in making his vision a durable reality; his children and their spouses Caroline, (Chris DeForest), Marjorie, (Woody Swan), Jane, (Chris Soper), John, (Marie Hull); and his grandchildren Katharine and David Soper, and John and Robert DeForest.
Daniel Webb
The Center hosted a Celebration of Life for George Woodwell on July 26, 2024. Below are excerpts of remarks from friends and colleagues. A recording of the event is available online, including remarks from George’s family, at: woodwellclimate.org/stories/video
Max Holmes PRESIDENT & CEO OF WOODWELL CLIMATE
I was incredibly fortunate to have George as a mentor, an advisor, and a friend for almost 20 years now. I distinctly remember almost exactly 20 years ago, when I was interviewing for a position as a scientist here in George’s office. I knew of George, certainly I knew of his scientific career and the amazing things he had done; I had briefly met him in passing a couple of times, but I can say I was incredibly nervous when I walked into that office for the interview. And somehow, I made it through.
It was a privilege to work with George and Katharine while they still led the institution, and certainly, still, to be here today. I was reflecting this morning over the past three years, when I’ve been in the position of the President, how my relationship with George continued to grow. He would frequently call me with suggestions, with encouragement, and a lot of enthusiasm. I spoke to him not so long before he passed. He just had read something about the work we were doing, and he just called to say how fantastic it was and what a good job we were doing. I say that really reflecting. I want our staff to hear that because we are all, on a daily basis, carrying on this legacy that he began. The world’s a better place because George was here.
When I met George at the end of the ’60s, he was running ecosystem research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. Two of the projects that he invented and led there turned out to be scientific home runs of a magnitude that few scientists reach even once in their lifetime.
In the first one, he provided the first ever quantitative measurements showing how ecosystems would respond to ionizing radiation following a large nuclear reactor accident or explosions of nuclear weapons. George’s second scientific home run from his base at the Brookhaven Lab was a set of studies of the accumulation of DDT and its residues in the food webs of a Long Island estuary. Those findings were a crucial piece of the science that led to the banning of DDT in the United States.
George himself played a role in that outcome that went beyond his science. A hallmark of his approach to the world through his whole career was that he didn’t just want to understand problems, he wanted to contribute to fixing them.
Max Holmes read additional remembrances, including a message from Dr. Foster Brown.
Foster Brown
SENIOR SCIENTIST EMERITUS
During the late 1980s, I watched as the Center grew from one employee to become a referenced institution for global change, research, and
John Holdren FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE CENTER
Grand opening of Woods Hole Research Center’s Ordway Campus, 2003.
Outside the Fisher House office, 1985.
In the Woodwell Climate library, 2023.
SENIOR SCIENTIST EMERITUS
I started working in 1966 in the biology department at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and I am both privileged and honored and fortunate to have known and worked with George since then. My whole life and career were intertwined with his starting then in 1966.
It’s impossible to say what I would’ve been, what I would have done, what I would have accomplished had George not hired me. So, it made all the difference. He contributed enormously to who I am.
George was a remarkable man. Looking back, two things in particular stand out for me. One, he was a man on a mission. Two, he had a genuine interest in others, in everyone around him. He was always thinking, always doing, writing, promoting, advocating, questioning. He was always engaged. He was on a mission.
policy. At the time I was hired in 1985, the entire Woodwell family was cleaning and painting the offices and workspace for the Center in the basement of the Fisher House.
George, in some ways, was a simmering volcano of emotion covered with a crust of New England stoicism. Katharine would help him navigate the course, acting effectively as George’s better angel. They formed a team that managed to significantly change the discussion about climate change. What time, and my experience with George and his family, have given me is the perspective of how important it is to dream and to work to make those dreams a reality even when you are cleaning a dusty office in a church basement.
Philip Duffy FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE CENTER
George was a forceful communicator. He was a good writer, and he was a great speaker. I remember walking over to an event with him one day where we were both going to speak, and he looked at me and said, “Now, we’re not going to be bashful.” And guess if he was.
George did like to be a little bit outrageous. He liked to say, “I’m mad as hell.” And that’s how I knew George was okay. When I said, “George, how are you doing?” he would go, “I’m mad as hell.” I’m like, “Okay. George is all right.” But George was mad as hell about continued apathy, continued lack of progress, continued misinformation, continued delay-ism, and continued obstructionism. And we should be mad as hell, too. As we continue our important work, as we honor George’s legacy, let’s be mad as hell and let’s not be bashful.
Allison White COMMUNICATIONS
ASSOCIATE & MANAGER OF ADMINISTRATION (retired)
George was a fine and prolific writer, often reminding us that the earth is finite. His prose was elegant and irresistible. And he paid attention to Katharine’s opinion. More than once, I heard her exclaim, “George, you can’t say that!” I longed to know to what she was referring, but that was, in any case, classic George and Katharine, whose intellect, enthusiasm, hard work, mutual respect, plus a healthy dash of humor became the mighty pillars of the Center.
What George accomplished in life is what he was meant to do. The greatest testament to his work is right in front of us with this extraordinary campus and its majestic turbine, the place that carries forth his vision for a world that works. I will always love the Center whose essence stems from George and Katharine.
Richard (Skee) Houghton
Chestnut tree planting on the Woodwell campus, 2017.
Allison White staff photo, 2014
Celebration of Life for George Woodwell, 2024.
In my own voice: Dr. Nigel Golden
Climate Justice Committee sows the seeds for change
For Climate Justice
Specialist Dr. Nigel Golden,
making climate science just and equitable is akin to watching an ecosystem evolve over time
In February, Woodwell Climate Research Center’s new Climate Justice committee gathered for the very first time. Even through the computer screen, you could feel it—a buzz of anticipation, the spark of hope, as folks from across the organization came together to dream about the vision and goals ahead.
This was no ordinary meeting—it was the first step in what many hope will be a transformative journey for Woodwell Climate, guiding us toward a more just and equitable climate future. Like a handful of seeds taking root, this meeting was full of potential. Participants shared ideas and intentions that, with care and nurture, could grow into something powerful that reshapes the landscape of Woodwell Climate’s global impact.
Climate justice is indispensable to Woodwell’s work
Climate change is being felt around the world, but as its effects become more frequent and intense, the unequal impacts on different communities become more obvious. Some communities are disproportionately affected, while others benefit more from societal responses to climate change.
A salient example of this can be found in the aftermath of climate-related disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. Affluence of a community or country plays a role in shielding citizens from the worst effects of the disaster, and efforts to rebuild are often much swifter. Meanwhile, low-income communities must often face forced displacement, material destruction, and cultural degradation.
This growing disparity underscores the need for research and solutions that acknowledge and work to rectify these inequities. Because climate change creates and exacerbates inequitable situations, addressing disparity must be a central consideration in both current climate research and long-term climate adaptation strategies.
Climate justice is an approach to addressing climate change that not only considers, but centers, disproportionate impacts. It integrates principles of social justice, human rights, and equity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental issues with systems of oppression. By centering those most affected by climate injustice—who are also the least responsible for causing it—climate justice reframes the issue as not only scientific, technical, or financial, but as a moral and justice concern. It requires us to consider not just where and how climate change is happening but also who is excluded or marginalized by the physical and social mechanisms of climate change and by any adaptation or mitigation efforts we pursue.
As an institution dedicated to using science to inform climate change policy, integrating climate justice enriches our work in five significant ways.
1 First, by identifying who is disproportionately affected, our research and policy recommendations can be more targeted and effective in addressing vulnerabilities that might otherwise be overlooked.
2 Second, demonstrating a commitment to equity in our work increases our credibility and broadens our support among diverse stakeholders, including members of historically marginalized communities.
3 Third, understanding the social, cultural, and economic contexts in which climate impacts occur allows us to develop strategies that are not only scientifically sound but also socially relevant and adaptable.
4 Fourth, policies shaped with an awareness of who is excluded or marginalized are more likely to succeed because they are grounded in the realities of those most affected.
5 Lastly, by considering who is excluded or marginalized, we can address not only the symptoms but also the root causes of climate injustice, leading to more comprehensive and lasting solutions.
Nurturing a growing climate justice ecosystem
It’s essential to remember that this kind of transformative work is often slow, challenging, and asks for a commitment that stretches beyond the urgency of the moment. There’s no magic wand, no quick-fix—something we know deeply, sometimes frustratingly, from our scientific work. Real climate justice isn’t something you can cook up in isolation or rush through with a checklist. It’s born from the steady, patient work of weaving relationships, dismantling entrenched inequalities, and watering the seeds of small, consistent actions—nurtured across many hands and hearts over time, even when the growth feels almost imperceptible.
Think of it like the slow growth of trees that eventually give rise to forests—subtle, persistent, inevitable. The key is to stay rooted in purpose, grounded in the values that guide us, trusting that even the smallest efforts will accumulate into something deep, something strong, something lasting—like a mature old-growth forest, resilient through the cycles of time.
The work we’re doing as a committee is very much in its early, tender stages. It is dynamic and evolving, like the ‘pioneer stage’ of a forest’s life. Here, the groundwork is being lovingly (and with considerable effort) laid for what’s to come, like the lichens and mosses breaking down rock, slowly transforming barren ground into rich, life-giving soil. In these first steps, we are creating the conditions for future growth, for future flourishing.
As we move forward, the process becomes more complex—a kind of intermediate stage. Dandelions, grasses, the boldest and most audacious plants take root first, thanks to the quiet, persistent work of the mosses and lichens. The rest need a little more nurturing, a bit more care. Diversity begins to blossom—shrubs, small trees, and layers of life start to interweave, creating habitats for fungi, microbes, and animals. The community is expanding, deepening, finding its rhythm. Together as a committee we will expand our capacity to interweave more complex ideas and projects, allowing our work to deepen and evolve like a thriving ecosystem.
Dr. Nigel Golden surveys a field site in Alaska./ photo by Erin Towns Photography
Moss and lichen covering the Arctic tundra./ photo by Chris Linder
And then, like the forest maturing into its climax stage, we envision a time when the ecosystem is stable, resilient, and thriving—a rich blend of old, wise trees and vibrant new growth. A place where deep-rooted interconnectedness allows life to sustain itself, weathering disturbances with grace. As a Climate Justice Committee, we aim to create a space where renewal is constant, change is embraced, and growth is continuous—ever adaptive, ever committed to justice, and ever alive to the needs of all, as Woodwell Climate continues to work towards an equitable, healthy and sustainable world.
Pioneering climate justice work at Woodwell
Our first offering as a committee of mosses and lichens is to craft a set of actionable recommendations to help guide Woodwell Climate toward a future where our work is deeply rooted in the principles of climate justice, rich in diverse perspectives, and resilient in the face of challenges. This is our way of fostering the right environment for the seeds of future work to grow into a thriving, enduring ecosystem of ideas and actions. Our pioneer stage isn’t growing from a completely “barren substrate” however. We’re rich in resources—our science, staff, partners and you, our supporters reading this!
While developing these recommendations will be inherently challenging, it’s critical that we get it right together. How we reach our goals is just as important as the goals themselves, and our collaborative process should reflect principles of justice, equity and mutual support. In other words, the process itself should be a model of the world we are trying to create.
Drawing inspiration from Team Science—a collaborative approach to scientific challenges—Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy, which highlights the importance of cultivating relationships, trust, and community-building in collaborative work, and Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid, which emphasizes equitable distribution of roles, responsibilities, and credit in a supportive environment, we have created a team charter, establishing the principles guiding how we will work together.
The team charter aligns members on the goals we are working toward and how members will approach the work together, providing clarity and focus. It creates a shared understanding of the team’s purpose and mission and fosters a sense of ownership and commitment that makes it easier to stay focused on long-term goals. By clearly defining roles and responsibilities, the charter reduces confusion and prevents overlap, ensuring that everyone’s contributions are recognized and understood. The guidelines for equitable participation, decision-making, and conflict resolution, set forth in the charter, help build a culture where all voices are heard and respected. Principles of flexibility and continued improvement are embedded into the charter as well, allowing the team to adapt as needed.
Our hope is that this foundational work, like the pioneer stages of a forest, sets the stage for a process of ongoing growth, adaptation, and transformation that will carry Woodwell’s climate justice work into the future. As our work progresses (starting now with developing those recommendations), we’ll move through the intermediate stages of ecological succession—where new members are integrated and experimentation thrives. We’ll learn from both successes and setbacks, like our scientists testing their ideas in the field. Ultimately, we’ll cultivate a mature, stable ecosystem, where deep-rooted relationships hold the committee together.
Yet even in this stage, just as in a primary forest, dynamic change continues. A gap in the canopy lets in light, sparking fresh growth and kickstarting another round of succession. We find ourselves asking: How might we spark deep and lasting change for a just climate future? The forest teaches us that the answers lie in cycles of renewal, in allowing space for the new while honoring the stability of what’s been built.
The view up into the pine canopy of Tongass National Forest, Alaska. / photo by Nigel Golden
Golden assists a Polaris Project student collect samples during field work in Alaska. / photo by Sue Natali
Climate change is
exacerbating fires in forests from the boreal to the tropics
Sarah Ruiz Science Writer and Editor
Fire is a complicated element of forest ecosystems. In northern forests, it’s essential to promote regeneration, but with climate change larger, more frequent blazes have started threatening the ecosystem instead of nurturing it. In the tropical Amazon rainforest, fire is never natural. All ignitions can be tied to human influences.
In order for a fire to start anywhere, you need three things—hot and dry climate conditions, adequate fuel, and an ignition source. Whether it’s a tropical rainforest or the northern conifer-dominated boreal zone, climate change is exacerbating all three elements of this “triangle of fire.”
CLIMATE IGNITION
FUEL
BOREAL
Climate
As northern latitudes warm at a rate three to four times faster than the rest of the globe, fire seasons in the boreal have lengthened, and the number of fire-risk days have increased.
In some areas of high-latitude forest, climate change has altered the dynamics of snowfall and snow cover disappearance. The rate of spring snowmelt is often an important factor in water availability on a landscape throughout the summer. A recent paper, led by Dr. Thomas Hessilt of Vrije University in collaboration with Woodwell Associate Scientist, Dr. Brendan Rogers, found that earlier snow cover disappearance resulted in increased fire ignitions. Early snow disappearance was also associated with earlierseason fires, which were more likely to grow larger—on average 77% larger than historical fires.
Fuel
The second requirement for fires to start is available “fuel”. In a forest, that’s vegetation (both living and dead) as well as carbon-rich soils that have built up over centuries. Here, the warming climate plays a role in priming vegetation to burn. A paper co-authored by Rogers has demonstrated temperatures above approximately 71°F in the forest canopy can be a useful indicator for the ignition and spread of “mega-fires,” which spread massive distances through the upper branches of trees. The findings suggest that heat-stressed vegetation plays a big role in triggering these large fires.
Warming has also triggered a feedback loop around fuel in boreal systems. In North America, the historically dominant black spruce is struggling to regenerate between frequent, intense fires. In some places, it is being replaced by competitor species like white spruce or aspen, which don’t support the same shaded, mossy environment that insulates frozen, carbon-rich soils called permafrost, making the ground more
A
/
Fire in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, AK. / photo by Peter Frumhoff; Burning Amazon vegetation. / photo by Illuminati Filmes
Triangle of fire graphic by Tommy Hillmer
burned stand of boreal trees. / photo by Kayla Mathes Change in the number of dangerous wildfire days.
map by Christina Shintani
Change in the number of dangerous wildfire days
2001-2020 vs. 1981-2000
-10
0 ≥20 days
Little to no biomass ≤1 Megagram per hectare
utility-scale solar. It also has the added benefit of protecting communities from the health risk of wildfire smoke.
Rogers, along with Senior Science Policy Advisor, Dr. Peter Frumhoff, and Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kayla Mathes have begun work in collaboration with the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to pilot this solution as part of the Permafrost Pathways project. Yukon Flats is underlain by large tracts of particularly carbon-rich permafrost soils, making it a good candidate for fire suppression tactics to protect stored carbon.
larger, more intense blazes that contribute more carbon to the atmosphere. While the permanent solution to bring fires back to their natural regimes lies in curbing global emissions, research from Woodwell Climate suggests that firefighting in boreal forests can be a successful emissions mitigation strategy. And a cost effective one too—perhaps as little as $13 per metric ton of carbon dioxide avoided, which puts it on par with other carbon mitigation solutions like onshore wind or
The project will be the first of its kind—working with communities in and around the Refuge as well as US agencies to develop and test best practices around fighting boreal fires specifically to protect carbon. Broadening deployment of fire management could be one strategy to mitigate the worst effects of intensifying boreal fires, buying time we need to get global emissions in check.
continued on page 18
What goes up...
The formerly ice -locked Arctic Ocean has experienced a retreat of sea ice extent for decades and has lost nearly three quarters of its volume in the past 40 years. But what happens when all that ice melts, revealing open ocean?
The answer, outlined in a new study from Woodwell Climate Senior Scientist, Dr Jennifer Francis, and co -authors from around the world, is that melting sea ice fuels winter-time precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere. The researchers found that between 1980 and 2021, increased evaporation resulting from retreating Arctic sea ice accounted for 42% of the overall trend of increasing precipitation
precipitation in the Arctic is driven primarily by dynamics of local evaporation, rather than by moisture transported northward.
Arctic Marginal Seas
This study was focused on melting ice in Arctic Marginal Seas (AMS), the area where sea ice has disappeared between 80 deg north latitude and the maximum ice extent during the 1980 –2021 cold seasons. 80 degrees is considered the threshold of the “high Arctic”.
A moister atmosphere
Global atmospheric water vapor has been increasing across the globe since 1940, as the air and oceans warm, increasing evaporation.
Change in AMS contribution to preciptation and snowfall during 1980 - 2021
Extreme Snowfall Change
Changes in rain and snow
Despite rising temperatures, in some regions like northeastern Siberia, snowfall has been increasing as a result of sea ice retreat and increased evaporation. Almost all regions of the Arctic experienced an increase in the frequency of rain.
Snow in Kolyma
evaporation increases
As AMS sea ice extent decreases...
...contributing more to precipitation over land in the Northern Hemisphere.
A small but distinct region of the Kolyma Lowland exhibited the most significant surge in extreme snowfall fueled by AMS moisture.
= 0.1 mm per year (water equivalent) of extreme snowfall AMS contribution to extreme snowfall in Kolyma Lowland
removing the barrier of evaporation between the sea and the air. In addition, warmer air has a greater capacity to hold moisture. According to the study, evaporation from AMS rose by 14% over four decades. This ice - evaporation dynamic represents roughly 16% of increased precipitation over the Northern Hemisphere.
Maps and graphics by Christina Shintani. Text by Sarah Ruiz. Data: Liu, Yubo & Tang, Qiuhong & Zhang, Chi & Chen, Deliang & Francis, Jennifer & Leung, L. & Chen, Hans. (2024) The disproportionate impact of enhanced evaporation from melting arctic sea
AMAZON
Climate
High temperature and dryness combine to create the right conditions for fires to spread through the Amazon. As global temperatures have risen, the Amazon region has become hotter and drier, more vulnerable to prolonged droughts and extreme climatic events. Most recently, a climate-driven drought spanning 2023 and 2024 has deeply impacted water levels in the forest—to the point of isolating riverside communities.
Wildfire danger days, or days considered hot and dry enough to increase the likelihood of fire, have become a much more common occurrence deeper in the Amazon, where previously it was just too wet to burn.
Ignition
Felled trees and dry vegetation form the fuel for more fires in the Amazon. How do the trees fall? Some are killed in extreme drought and previous fire, but many are intentionally cut, pushed over by bulldozers for conversion of forest to pasture land. Large-scale deforestation has been advancing into the Amazon for decades, fragmenting thick blocks of forest and replacing them with ranch or farm land. Scientists and activists have been pushing for an urgent stop in deforestation to achieve, among other benefits, a drop in fire numbers. However, despite slowly declining deforestation rates, fires are still increasing, pointing to another important piece of the puzzle—degradation.
When a forest is fragmented by deforestation, it degrades the vegetation that remains standing. Forests along the edges of clearings dry out and weaken, making them more susceptible to
Change in the number of dangerous wildfire days
2001-2020 vs. 1981-2000
≤-10 0 ≥40 days
Little to no biomass ≤1 Megagram per hectare
Data: Vitolo, C., Di Giuseppe, F., Barnard, C. et al. ERA5-based global meteorological wildfire danger maps. Sci Data 7, 216 (2020).
future burning. And burning weakens nearby forests yet again, creating more available fuel, setting off a chain of degradation.
Fuel
Ignition in the Amazon is almost entirely human caused— whether accidentally or intentionally. Ranch and farm operations both legally and illegally clearing Amazon rainforest use fire to burn away cut vegetation or prepare existing pasture land for other uses. With climate change creating hotter and drier conditions, and lengthening the dangerous dry season, any ignition becomes potentially risky, whether or not its use is legalized. Especially where forest edges have already been weakened.
However, a study led by Woodwell Climate Postdoctoral Researcher and fire ecologist Dr. Manoela Machado, found that long-term solutions to the Amazon’s fire crisis will require distinguishing between the complex uses of fire. One-size-fitsall fire bans, usually employed as emergency measures and not always strictly enforced, may reduce fire in the short term, but don’t adequately address the underlying reasons people have decided to burn the land.
Ending deforestation and supporting firefighters
Fire in the Amazon follows deforestation and degradation, namely from logging, fires, droughts and fragmentation. Climate change and human encroachment have worked in
concert to foster a devastating annual burning regime in the Amazon rainforest that threatens one of the Earth’s most valuable mechanisms for keeping the planet cool.
Eliminating fire from the Amazon will require the elimination of deforestation and degradation sources, as well as the enforcement of strategic fire bans and support of firefighting brigades. Machado, has led several successful workshops with Indigenous fire brigades in Brazil, bringing together groups from across the country to learn about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology they can use to monitor and manage their own forests.
According to Machado, a big part of fire prevention happens in the off-season. Support for activities like community outreach, building fire breaks in collaboration with farmers, and technical assistance to replace legal use of fire, can all help reduce the prevalence of catastrophic fires when the dryseason comes around.
The Amazon is a massive place, and firefighting can be a dangerous job. Especially on the frontiers of deforestation, where land grabbing and illegal deforestation are common and fire fighters are often threatened to stay out of an area. Ultimately, government support, bolstered enforcement of deforestation laws, and viable alternative livelihoods have a major role to play in bringing down fires, alongside continued global efforts to curb climate change.
Change in the number of dangerous wildfire days. / map by Christina Shintani
A bulldozer widens a road on a farm in the Amazon. / photo by Mitch Korolev
Dr. Manoela Machado helps a workshop participant during a field exercise. / photo by Sara Raira Leal Pereira
Valuing the DRC’s peatlands
Beneath the Congo Rainforest, a carbon treasure trove awaits. Protecting it will require a thriving and sustainable economy.
Sarah Ruiz Science Writer and Editor
On the southern bank of a turbulent, muddy-brown bend in the Congo River, sits the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. Here, Woodwell Climate Associate Scientist, Dr. Glenn Bush and Forests and Climate Change Coordinator, Joseph Zambo, have joined other researchers and government officials in the conference rooms of a downtown hotel for a three-day workshop about peat.
Bush is an economist and social scientist who has worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for 16 years, studying the social and economic structures that shape land use. Zambo leads Woodwell Climate’s work from the DRC side, liaising between local residents, the national government, and international researchers. The pair of them are hard at work advising on the creation of the DRC’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which outlines the country’s commitment to emissions reductions within the UN climate change framework.
Peatlands, a type of wetland, could be a critical element in the DRC’s contributions. Underlying large swaths of the Congo Rainforest, these carbon-packed soils are critical to protect. But disturbances like agriculture, deforestation, and climate change have already begun nibbling at the valuable stock of carbon. And once it is released, it takes millennia to replace.
What is a peatland?
Congo peatlands are found primarily in the wet, marshy forests of the country’s “Cuvette Central” or Central Basin. They form on the water-soaked banks of stream channels— an oxygen-poor environment that slows the decomposition process, allowing organic matter to build up over time into a spongy soil that locks away carbon, preventing it from rejoining the atmosphere.
A stable peatland relies on wetness. Draining a peat swamp immediately exposes that carbon to decomposition and erosion when it touches air.
“As soon as aerobic bacteria start getting in there,” says Bush. “Then all that carbon starts to become unstable. So the idea is, we just need to not disturb that peat as much as possible.”
But avoiding disturbance is a difficult thing to do these days. As populations grow, people are pushing further into forested marshland margins, often modifying them for agricultural uses like wetland rice production or fish farming to support their families and communities.
Peatlands are also extremely sensitive to degradation and deforestation across the rainforest biome. In the Congo Basin,
the rainforest is actually responsible for creating most of its own rain—the spring rainy season is triggered by moisture breathed into the atmosphere by plants, rather than blown inland from the sea. This makes the Congo even more sensitive than the Amazon when it comes to the drying effects of deforestation.
“For every hectare of forest you lose in Africa, you lose proportionately more rainfall than you do for a similar amount of forest loss in Latin America or in South and Southeast Asia,” says Woodwell Climate Tropics Program Director, Dr. Mike Coe.
What we don’t know about the Congo’s peatlands
So exactly how much peatland does the Congo Basin hold? And how bad would it be in terms of emissions to lose them? The answer to both is “we don’t know for certain.”
Research has only just begun to give size and shape to this critical ecosystem. Recently, a collaborative Congolese and British team led by Dr. Simon Lewis of the University of Leeds walked two 20–30 kilometer transects of marshy forest, taking
core samples to assess the existence of peatland. They found it everywhere beneath the forest. All told, an estimated 145,000 square kilometers across the entire region.
That translates to an estimated 30 billion metric tons of carbon—more than 20 times the United States’ annual fossil fuel emissions.
“It’s only two transects in the whole of the Congo Basin, but using that, we’ve been able to recalibrate existing models of peatland extent and quality, and it basically shows we’re sitting on a tropical carbon treasure trove,” says Bush.
Peatland protection is poverty alleviation
So protecting peatlands is important, but in practice, it’s a hard thing to accomplish. Why?
Right now, peatlands are more valuable to the people of DRC as a land resource to produce food, hunt, fish and harvest plants and materials for building, than as untouched forest. Some estimates indicate more than 90% of deforestation in the country occurs to support subsistence agriculture. It’s a necessity for the nearly three quarters of the country’s population that lives on less than $2.15 a day.
In 2020, Zambo and Bush, alongside Woodwell Senior Research Scientist Kathleen Savage, conducted research into methods of agricultural intensification in rice paddy wetlands which are often created on deforested peatland. Applying different farming methods, involving weeding and tending to rice plants throughout the full season rather than traveling and returning for the harvest, significantly boosted yields over the same area, meaning less pressure to expand into the forest to increase productivity.
“Just by tending the rice, you could perhaps save about 30% of the forest,” says Savage.
Farmers recognized the benefit of this method, but were hesitant to adopt it. That time spent not tending to rice is often spent working to earn extra cash to pay immediate expenses. Waiting for a larger payout at the end of the season is not always a risk they are able to take. A good crop is not guaranteed; pests, drought, or floods could all wipe out a year’s worth of work, leaving farmers with no income. That uncertainty pushes people to make tough decisions about how to use forests.
“There’s no social safety net,” says Savage. “Well actually, the social safety net is the forest—hunting, chopping a tree down and selling the lumber because it’s worth a lot of money.”
(clockwise from left) A ricefield bordered by forest.; Homesteads dot the banks of the Congo River; After rain, large puddles form on a road cut through the forest. / photos by Nolan Kitts
Carbon markets could direct money to forest communities
To prevent deforestation and degradation of peatland, rural communities will need an alternative source of income. Bush and Zambo have been discussing the potential for carbon markets to supply that income.
Carbon markets are a finance mechanism that places a monetary value on preventing carbon from entering the atmosphere—or actively removing it. They function on the sale of “carbon credits” which theoretically represent one metric ton of carbon kept stored or sequestered through land management practices. Ideally, money from their purchase goes directly to the people managing the land—whether that’s a farmer protecting forests or a community group restoring degraded areas.
In reality, however, carbon credits have been challenging to verify because of weak regulations and lack of data.
“The problem with the carbon credit is nobody’s really sure about quality and standards for delivery or how to measure and monitor them because, obviously, somebody doesn’t turn up on your doorstep with a bag full of carbon,” says Bush.
So far, market implementation has been plagued by accusations of greenwashing for polluting corporations who buy offsets and government regulatory programs unable to prove positive climate and biodiversity impacts. But Bush and Zambo see potential for a version of this solution to bring more wealth directly into farmers’ hands if done right.
Bush is working with the Carbon team at Woodwell Climate on the development of a Landscape Capital Index (LCI) that uses scientific standards to assess the potential of any tract of land to deliver climate mitigation and other benefits like biodiversity and water cycling. Once refined, the Index will provide data against which carbon credits can be checked.
Zambo has been deeply involved in conversations with the Ministry of Environment around the country’s National Net Zero Plan. Both he and Bush hope that a science-backed carbon market could make many of the sustainable development projects outlined in the plan economically feasible.
“The validation of carbon stored in this ecosystem could generate a lot of money in the country for development,” says Zambo.
Building Congolese capacity
Another obstacle to implementing an effective carbon market is finding available data to feed the LCI. As Bush mentioned, current information on peatland carbon is based on only a thin slice of the entire watershed. In order to provide payments
for local-level conservation projects, we need a much more granular understanding of the extent and quality of carbon across the entire ecosystem. Collecting that kind of data will require more scientists—Congolese scientists—and more technical capacity among officials who could be responsible for managing conservation programs in the future.
“DRC needs capacity building in the mapping of peatland areas to develop a national strategy specific to peatlands,” says Zambo.
Capacity building was a large part of the workshop in Bush and Zambo attended in Kinshasa.
“This workshop was very important in the context of sharing knowledge and advances in data collection about peatlands, in order to enable the Congolese government to identify missing data, raise awareness among stakeholders, and create synergies between peatlands and other climate initiatives,” says Zambo.
Additional technological resources could also help bolster scientific capacity. Savage has been working with Research Assistant Zoë Dietrich to develop inexpensive, portable,
Peatland’s many threats
Longer dry seasons, deforestation, and land-use change are among the disturbances that threaten peatlands in the Central Congo Basin. The peatlands shown at right are the best representation we have, but scientists believe it is a conservative estimate. Peatlands are an important carbon sink, but o ten overlooked in policy discussions around emissions mitigation and climate resilience.
Peatland thickness
Deforestation
AFRICA
MAP AREA Study area
methane monitoring chambers for use at field research sites in Brazil and Alaska. Savage sees the potential to adapt the chamber design for use in the DRC monitoring carbon fluxes in wetland forests.
“Right now, in terms of carbon accounting, [the DRC] is using measurements estimated from another similar country and the assumption is that’s what their forests are doing, too. But in order to get accurate numbers, they really need to move to direct measurements,” says Savage.
DRC’s sustainable future
There is much work to be done to build carbon markets into a viable funding mechanism for large conservation efforts in the DRC. Sustainability and economic growth will ultimately come down to providing rural households with pragmatic livelihood alternatives, and developing a sense of financial security. But Bush hopes the excitement around their potential could
help push forward difficult conversations, not just around conservation and climate, but about economic governance within the country on a larger scale.
The carbon market, after all, is a market just like the ones selling sacks of rice or valuable timber.
“Once the buyers and sellers understand the basic value of what is being bought and sold, then it requires the same framework conditions to operate as any market needs,” says Bush. “Good governance, transparency and adherence to the rule of law.”
Zambo sees a path forward as well. One where valuing peatlands for their ecosystem benefits can help lift up all of DRC.
“I hope that the conservation, protection, management, and development of peatlands and forests in the DRC can be a key driver for the country’s sustainable development,” says Zambo.
(top) Farming on cleared forestland; (bottom) Old-growth trees being taken downriver on an tree-trunk raft. / photos by Nolan Kitts
Data: Crezee, B. et al. Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data; Hansen, M. C. et al. 2013. "HighResolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change."; Lehner, B., Grill G. (2013) HydroRivers; OpenStreetMap / map by Christina Shintani
Water rising
Flood mapping in the Native Village of Kuigilnguq
Jessica Howard Arctic Communications Specialist
Greg Fiske
Senior Geospatial Analyst, Senior Research Associate
Gary Evon Alaska Native Village of Kuigilnguq, former Permafrost Pathways Tribal Liaison
Kuigilnguq, Alaska
Village of no river
The Alaska Native Village of Kuigilnguq (Kwigillingok; pronounced kwee-gill-in-gawk), a word that means “no river” in Yugtun, the traditional Yup’ik language, is a federally recognized Tribe in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta near the southwest coast of the Bering Sea. In Kuigilnguq, most of the approximately 400 residents identify as Alaska Native people of the Central Yup’ik culture, and the village Tribal Council operates as the main governing and decision-making body of the community.
As the story goes, when Kuigilnguq’s Yup’ik ancestors settled, there was no river near the village. But after a girl lost her necklace in a lake one day, her father drained the lake looking for it, creating what is now known as the Kuigilnguq River. Yup’ik creation stories are a cultural practice of intergenerational oral storytelling that reveal their deep connection to the land, plants, and animals.
But due to the ongoing impacts of colonialism and climate change, a different kind of story about environmental change is unfolding in Kuigilnguq.
As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the world, rising temperatures are transforming the northern environment and creating a human rights crisis in Alaska with 144 Alaska Native communities—43% of all communities across the state—imminently threatened by permafrost thaw, flooding, and/or erosion. Kuigilnguq is a coastal village that sits at a low elevation where the landscape is increasingly subjected to the impacts of climate change and, like many remote communities in Alaska, they are now being forced to make difficult adaptation decisions in order to protect themselves and their traditional ways of life from the cascading effects of environmental hazards caused by Arctic warming.
The compounding impacts of permafrost thaw
Covering 15% of the northern hemisphere, permafrost is perennially frozen ground that underlies the Arctic tundra and large swaths of boreal forest. But rapid pan-Arctic warming is causing permafrost to thaw, destabilizing the ground, and triggering land subsidence, and contributing to flooding and erosion. Permafrost thaw can also cause lake drainage and exacerbate saltwater inundation that encroaches on freshwater sources. Slow-onset processes like coastal and riverine erosion, coastal sea ice decline, and extreme weather events like storms, floods, and wildfires can accelerate permafrost thaw and contribute to usteq—the Yup’ik word for catastrophic ground collapse.
Permafrost thaw, flooding, and erosion also damage the built environment, destroying roads and essential infrastructure like homes, schools, and public utilities that ensure community access to housing, education, medical facilities, electricity, transportation, and clean water. These dangerous phenomena also have a significant impact on local vegetation like berries and other tundra plants as well as the migration patterns of Arctic species like salmon and moose, on which the people of Kuigilnguq depend to maintain their traditional subsistence practices and cultural lifeways.
The Yup’ik People of Kuigilnguq have been the traditional stewards of the land and water since time immemorial and maintain strong cultural connections to and intimate knowledge of their ancestral homelands. But due to the acceleration of climate impacts, Kuigilnguq is making difficult adaptation decisions involving managed retreat or community relocation to ensure a safer future and protect the health, wellbeing, and cultural heritage of their village.
Summer tidal flooding in Kuigilnguq, Alaska. / photo by Gary Evon; (inset) Satellite imagery of Kuigilnguq. / map image by Greg Fiske (top) Riverbank erosion along Kuigilnguq’s community boardwalk system. (bottom) Extreme flooding in Kuigilnguq. / photos by Gary Evon
Community-led flood mapping and the importance of co-production
While Arctic communities and scientists have been observing permafrost thaw for decades, climate adaptation governance frameworks currently don’t exist, and federal disaster policies and responses still do not account for permafrost thaw. However, several government agencies are actively working on strategies to change that by streamlining interagency coordination, improving opportunities for federal aid, providing better agency support for communities trying to access resources, and through the establishment of the Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Subcommittee under the White House National Climate Task Force.
To bridge these gaps and adequately address community needs, Permafrost Pathways is advocating for more federal support for solutions that are developed with and led by Alaska Native villages already leading the efforts to protect and prepare their communities against the impacts of climate change. The project is working closely with Kuigilnguq and other community partners as well as state and federal government agencies to co-create Indigenous-led adaptation and relocation frameworks that respect Tribal sovereignty and the right to self-determination. Permafrost Pathways adaptation work includes conducting site relocation assessments, sustaining community-led environmental monitoring, and co-producing maps of landscape change that will inform relocation decision-making and further advance community-led adaptation strategies.
In April 2023, Woodwell Climate’s Senior Scientist Dr. Sue Natali, who leads the Permafrost Pathways project, and Senior Geospatial Analyst Greg Fiske joined Ben Baldwin and Gary Evon, a former Permafrost Pathways Tribal Liaison, in Kuigilnguq to map the landscape changes happening in the community. Evon shared a recently completed community hazard assessment, in which he pointed out a map that underrepresented the severity of flooding in Kuigilnguq.
To better capture the extent of tidal flooding in the community, Evon and Fiske began planning a new map that combined Evon’s historical knowledge of the land with community observations and Fiske’s geospatial expertise. Using high-resolution satellite images, Evon drew circles around unflooded “islands”—small areas in the community that remained dry during the high tide. He then guided the team to those exact locations, where they mapped the unflooded areas using a GPS. Fiske and Evon used this information to co-produce a revised flood map that was strikingly different from the original and provided a more accurate visualization of the extreme tidal inundation that the community has been dealing with on a regular basis.
(top) Gary Evon and his team measuring permafrost thaw depth. / photo by Ben Baldwin; (bottom) A temperature sensor data logger sits on the tundra in Kuigilnguq before being installed. / photo by Sue Natali
Accurate representations of environmental hazards in maps and other geospatial tools are important for community disaster planning and response—preparation that is especially critical in a region where many communities aren’t connected to a road system and are only accessible by plane or barge.
Community Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs) are designed to identify natural threats and risks to reduce vulnerability and limit harm from environmental disasters. State and federal agencies rely on HMPs and other assessment reports to determine community climate risks and government response. These reports are also often prerequisites for accessing federal and state funding needed for climate adaptation.
Evon and Fiske’s co-produced flood map illustrates the importance of equitable research processes that bring together different methodologies for the coproduction of knowledge. Co-production, which often unites Western science with Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge, is essential for providing decision-makers with the best available science to ensure that government programs can appropriately meet adaptation needs. Better information helps avoid the risk of underestimating the severity of ongoing environmental hazards, and thus under-serving communities on the frontlines of climate change.
Indigenizing the map, reclaiming the land, protecting the future
Explore the full story map
Maps are an important medium for communication and information-sharing. They influence how we relate to our surroundings—shaping our perception of the world around us and how we make sense of it. Maps can help us tell powerful, immersive stories about the past, present, and future. For Indigenous Peoples, mapping is one way they are reclaiming their ancestral homelands and combating Indigenous erasure that happens when their communities, histories, knowledge, and languages are excluded from maps and major geospatial tools. Mapping is crucial to supporting Indigenous rights, respecting Indigenous sovereignty, sharing Indigenous stories, and advocating for more Indigenous land stewardship.
“Maps are a powerful tool to convey navigation and being able to see your place on the earth. Historically, Indigenous peoples have been excluded from the map; we’re changing that,” says Steve DeRoy, Founder of the Indigenous Mapping Collective.
Permafrost Pathways is coordinating with project partners to put the co-produced flood map in front of relevant government agencies to facilitate a relocation process for Kuigilnguq on a timeline that will match the urgency of their needs and ultimately keep the community safe. Combining Woodwell Climate’s technical expertise with the Traditional Knowledge of our Alaska Native community partners, we can co-produce environmental assessments and adaptation strategies that are accurate, equitable, and foster long-term climate resilience.
Indigenous-led coalitions like the Indigenous Mapping Collective are building capacity amongst Indigenous Peoples across the world by providing access to GIS software and training. The collective is growing an international network of Indigenous mappers working together to Indigenize maps through the decolonization of place and space.
To support such efforts, Permafrost Pathways is working with several Alaska Native community partners in the YukonKuskokwim Delta to put Indigenous place names in Yup’ik and Chupik back on the map to re-Indigenize the mapping of their homelands and preserve their traditional languages and cultural history for future generations.
few
(left) Gary Evon talks about flooding and environmental change in Kuigilnguq with the Permafrost Pathways team. (right) / Evon outlines the
areas that remain dry during tidal flood events. / photos by Greg Fiske
How climate data helps protect the future of Las Vegas
Woodwell’s Just Access team listens to locals to help bolster climate resilience in Las Vegas and communities around the world
Kaeli Bennett Science Writer Intern
This year, Las Vegas, Nevada broke its all-time heat record, reaching 120° F.
The temperature was recorded at Harry Reid International Airport on July 7, 2024. That week, between July 6 and July 12, was the new hottest 7-day period on record, with an average high temperature of 117.5° F.
This is the daily reality for Vegas residents in the summer. Record-breaking temperatures are hard to bear, but so were all the hot days and nights that came before. Commuters frequently see temperatures above 120 flash on their vehicle dashboards, and outdoor workers struggle to do their daily tasks under the hot sun.
“There’s a disconnect between climate science and the people who live here,” says Woodwell Climate Research Associate, Monica Caparas. “Vegas residents know our summers are hot and unbearable. Understanding that climate change is driving the extreme weather we’re experiencing is where the disconnect lies.”
Caparas moved to Las Vegas as a child. She grew up there, left for college, and returned to settle into her adult life. Today, she works for Woodwell Climate’s Risk team remotely from her home in the city. Caparas knows the ins and outs of local life. These include Vegas’s rapid population expansion, the groups of people experiencing homelessness sheltering in underground stormwater infrastructure, and the heat that was unbearable before it started making headlines.
Experiencing climate change without shelter
Caparas’s work with the Risk team aims to provide communities like Las Vegas with an accurate picture of the climate-driven changes in their future. These “risk assessments” are provided through Woodwell Climate’s Just Access program, which uses the most accurate climate models, in collaboration with local knowledge, to anticipate future community safety threats. The analyses have brought to light growing threats from flooding, heat, storms, and more. The team provides assessments, free of charge, to states, cities, and countries across the world.
Just Access serves what Risk Program Director Christopher Schwalm calls “frontline communities.” The term describes groups of people who are over-exposed, under-resourced, underserved, historically marginalized, and therefore the most at-risk to the repercussions of climate change. In the risk assessment for Las Vegas, people experiencing homelessness are front and center.
“Between May 20 and the first week in July, about 20 people who were experiencing homelessness died of heat,” says Dr. Catrina Grigsby-Thedford, Executive Director of the Nevada Homeless Alliance (NHA) and community partner in Las Vegas.
The NHA estimates that almost 8,000 people are experiencing homelessness on any given night in southern Nevada. The number is only growing. Grigsby-Thedford says that this year’s unhoused population is up 1,300 people compared to 2023.
“Often our shelters are full,” Grigsby-Thedford says, “We’re limited by shelter beds and space.”
The NHA’s shelters do open all day in extreme heat, but so many people packed tightly together is still unsafe.
With nowhere to go, some seek shelter underground in Las Vegas’s stormwater infrastructure. While the tunnels are cooler out of the sun’s reach, they are at risk from flooding. Across the region, extreme precipitation is expected to increase by 12–14% by 2050, raising flood risk in the city and especially within the tunnels.
To combat lack of space and shelter, the NHA hosts 4–8 one-stop resource fairs per month. The events, called Project Homeless Connect, serve both people experiencing homelessness and low-income residents in Las Vegas. GrigsbyThedford says these events “fill in gaps”—offering housing assistance, medical care, hygiene care, and other resources.
Despite all of this work, many unhoused people are hesitant to engage with organizations like the NHA. Grigsby-Thedford says “choice is often a challenge,” and that when people grow accustomed to the way things are, they often accept it and choose to stay.
Aerial view of Las Vegas, Nevada./ photo by Porque No Studios
September 2023 flooding./ photo by Monica Caparas
Picturing risk
Building trust with communities, especially those predisposed to mistrust outside actors, is essential in this work. Which is why, Schwalm says, Woodwell Climate approaches risk work with the goal of “meet[ing] people where they are.”
That means “scoping,” the team’s word for listening to what community and government leaders want out of the risk analysis—what concerns they have, weak points they’ve identified, and what help might be needed post-analysis.
“Two-thirds of the time we spend from start to finish falls into this scoping idea, rather than doing analysis itself,” Schwalm says.
Scoping frames the data the risk team collects, as well as who their partners will be during the risk analysis process.
“We find people who are practical and recognize that there’s a problem,” Schwalm says, “We only work with communities who want to work with us.”
Following the scoping process, the Risk team compiles an analysis of extreme weather events and subsequent risks each community will face as climate change progresses.
“We perform a stress test of that particular geography to identify weak points,” Schwalm explains.
Then, the Risk team uses the most up-to-date climate models possible to predict changes in extreme weather and regional climate. By using predictive models, the team focuses efforts on what the future will hold, as opposed to using past strategies.
“We need to use the future to predict the future,” Schwalm says simply.
Making climate risk data accessible to all
Over the past three years, Just Access has provided 50 communities—that’s about a quarter billion people—with risk analyses. These communities span the U.S., Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. They've worked with countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they helped update the country’s National Adaptive Plan, states like Chiapas in Mexico, groups like Cree Nation in Canada, and other communities, now including Las Vegas.
Despite all of this work, though, Schwalm says there is still room to grow.
“Fifty communities is kind of only a drop in the bucket,” he
The temperature reading in Caparas's car on July 5, 2024. / photo by Monica Caparas Cooling station flyer template for posting during high heat events. / image courtesy of Catrina Grigsby-Thedford
Monica Caparas with Catrina Grigsby-Thedford, Executive Director of the Nevada Homeless Alliance (NHA)./ photo courtesy of Monica Caparas
says, “We’re not going to make a huge dent in this unless we move beyond working community-by-community.”
Two major roadblocks for Just Access are finite resources: time and money. Individual risk analyses require a lot of time and communication to address risks in relatively small areas. The other obstacle, money, is something climate research could always use more of. Grants and donations are crucial in order for analyses to remain free, and those sometimes come with limitations.
“There’s a tension from the funder to work in a specific geography sometimes,” Schwalm says, “It’s a juggling act.”
Climate change can also be a politicized topic. In order to meet people where they are, sometimes the Risk team implements changes in language used to communicate with community leaders. This can be a change as simple as using “extreme weather” instead of “climate change.” As long as everyone in the room is ready to confront what the future holds, they’re all working on the same page towards the same goal.
“We’ve done red states, blue states, rural, urban,” Schwalm continues. “We’ve learned how to read the room.”
Creating the foundations for change
Woodwell Climate’s involvement in Las Vegas brings to light the way justice issues, like homelessness, interact with growing threats from climate change.
“In the Las Vegas risk assessment, we are focusing on the disproportionate impacts of the climate crises on communities already facing systemic socio-economic inequity,” says Caparas. “We must think about intersectionality in order to address climate justice.”
Not only does climate change represent a current crisis for those experiencing homelessness, communities with fewer resources are now at greater risk of being made homeless by future climate-related disasters. Accurate climate risk information can support organizations like NHA as they develop strategies to serve people experiencing homelessness in a more extreme future.
Grigsby-Thedford says that NHA members, especially those with lived experience of homelessness who work as Lived X Consultants, are always looking to be involved in projects like the one led by Caparas.
“We always talk about weather in our meetings,” she says, “So this is perfect, someone’s actually doing research about this. Anything that impacts [Las Vegas’s homeless population], we want to make sure we’re involved in that.”
For the Las Vegas risk assessment, Caparas is working with the NHA and Southern Nevada Lived X Consultants to understand climate risks around cooling stations in public buildings, which are a vital, air-conditioned shelter when the heat index is too high. Grigsby-Thedford says there were many more cooling stations in 2023 and 2024 compared to previous years.
Caparas also forged a connection with Miguel Dávila Uzcátegui, Southern Nevada’s Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) Senior Planner and board member of Help Hope Home. Together, they are developing a database of flooding infrastructure and updating the city’s flooding model with future climate projections. The RTC will integrate the Risk team’s model into regional planning work, updating Las Vegas’s flooding and transportation infrastructure for community safety.
None of this work would have been possible without Caparas’s diligent bridge building between the scientific resources of Woodwell Climate and the needs of people in her own community. Those connections allow science to be informed first and foremost by those most affected by climate change.
“The people closest to the problem are the people closest to the solution,” says Grigsby-Thedford.
Supporting Dr. George Woodwell’s legacy of science to serve the public good
Dr. Kira Lawrence began her career at Woodwell Climate, and the lessons she learned there have shaped her life
Sarah Ruiz Science Writer and Editor
“I wanted to do science that I thought mattered,” says Dr. Kira Lawrence, reflecting on her career as a researcher, educator, and most recently the Senior Policy Advisor for New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU).
Lawrence began her career at Woodwell Climate Research Center, then Woods Hole Research Center, in 1997. She worked as a research assistant in the global carbon program for two years before heading off to earn her master’s degree and eventually doctorate in earth sciences.
According to Lawrence, it was this short stint under the mentorship of Dr. George Woodwell and Dr. Richard “Skee” Houghton that gave her a model for the kind of science she wanted to pursue—“sound science in service to the public good.”
After earning her doctorate, she spent nearly 20 years as a professor
Help us carry forward Dr. George Woodwell’s legacy of science in service to the public good. Your gift to the George M. Woodwell Endowment Fund will support climate science for change in perpetuity. Question? Contact Beth Bagley at bbagley@woodwellclimate.org or at 508-444-1517.
at Lafayette College, inspiring a new generation of scientists to tackle the issue of climate change. But as the urgency of the climate crisis has become progressively more acute, she felt compelled to transition from focusing on researching and explaining the problem to working on the solutions.
So, she made the hard decision to leave her job as a professor and accept a fellowship that led to her new position at BPU. There she has worked on the fossil-fuel-to-clean energy transition, primarily focusing on offshore wind development, using her scientific expertise to inform New Jersey’s policies. Guided by the principles she took from her days at Woodwell Climate, she now feels she is having a tangible, positive impact by working directly on mitigating the climate crisis.
“Although I only worked for [George] and for the Research Center for a short time, that mattered to me,” says Lawrence “I didn’t want to be on the sideline and George, without him knowing, showed me the way.”
Throughout her life, Lawrence has been a consistent supporter of the Center’s work. After Woodwell’s passing earlier
Dr. Kira
this year, she was moved to donate in his honor as a natural continuation of his legacy.
“By continuing to give donations to the Research Center, you’re not only honoring George, but you are ensuring that his legacy and his ethos are carried into the future through the work of the Center,” says Lawrence.
That legacy, which Lawrence has worked to embody, is one of optimism and dedication to the public good. Of caring for both the people affected by climate change and the people working to reverse it.
“If you ask me to try and capture George Woodwell’s amazing contributions to society, it is not only the groundbreaking science he did on the most salient issues of his time, but also the ethos that science should be in service to the public good. We should take what we know from studying our planet, and use it to inform decisionmaking in a way that will benefit human societies,” says Lawrence. “George was the person who first helped me realize that and that ethos has served as a compass for my career ever since.”
Lawrence (right), with Drs. George Woodwell (left) and Skee Houghton (center) in 1997.
We are Woodwell Climate…
This summer, we celebrated decades of loyal giving in support of climate science for change. Donors giving for 10+ years, as well as George Perkins Marsh Society members, were hosted at a Loyalty Luncheon and honored for their long-term commitment to the Center.
