Change & Risk
Tracking how the climate is changing and modeling the impacts of these changes on humans and the environment is essential grounding for understanding risks and developing solutions.
Climate change poses real threats that call for tough choices under deep uncertainty. The public television documentary “Managing Risk in a Changing Climate” examines how Louisiana decision makers engage with researchers and stakeholders to inform choices about how to manage risks driven by changing sea levels and storms.
Discerning the Challenge
Understanding climate change’s risks empowers us to make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and build a more resilient world. This knowledge provides a solid foundation for informed decision-making, resource allocation, and the development of effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.
By identifying climate-related risks, such as extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and droughts, we can prioritize efforts to reduce vulnerability and build resilience. Additionally, understanding climate change enables us to allocate resources strategically where they will have the greatest impact.
Moreover, educating the public about climate change fosters awareness, engagement, and support for climate action.
“We see more and more how gradual climate change can lead to abrupt shifts in ecosystems and in economies… We will be better off if we build an early warning system for abrupt climate change that finds out our strengths our weaknesses and what might come after them.”
Change & Risk Climate Solutions Accelerator Projects
Co-Design Climate Resilient Community Health and Climate Justice in Harrisburg, Pa.
Designing the Future of Recovery: Catalyzing Conversations on Community-Centric Resilient Housing Solutions in Rural Appalachia
Furthering Indigenous-Led, Nature-based solutions through Rights and Onsets in the Global South
Integrated CO2 Mineralization and Critical Mineral Recovery for Sustainable Urban and Transportation Systems
Augmenting Climate Transition across the Atlantic Transect: Extension-driven Solutions to Implementing Socially Responsible, High-Integrity Forest Carbon Offsets
Biomaterials and Nature-Based Solutions: Achieving a Sustainable, Decarbonized, and Climate-Resilient Built Environment
Building Capacity for Subnational Climate Action
Carbon Management: Capture, Transport, and Geological Storage
Scaling One Health Approach through Multistakeholder Engagement in Arthropod Adaptations to Ecosystem Plasticity Associated with Climate Change
Research Program for Assisted Subnational Climate Planning
Climate-Driven Pluvial Flooding: Impacts on Environmental Non-Migrants in Central Pennsylvania
Developing and Evaluating Climate Solutions Educational Strategies through Leave No Trace
Developing Transformative Youth-Centered Research Agendas & Intergenerational Collaborations to Foster Climate Justice Solutions
Implementing State-Level Climate Change Policy and Management for Water Resources
The Penn State – Belizean Foundation for Research and Environmental Education Consortium Workshop
Penn State Mineral Dust and GeoHealth Workshop
Protecting Indigenous Lands and Promoting Ethical Conservation Practices Through Design of a Sustainable Environmental Monitoring Network
Resilience and Equity in Addressing Climate Health
Impact
Rivers rapidly warming, losing oxygen; aquatic life may be at risk, study finds
A study shows that rivers are warming and losing oxygen faster than oceans, and it projects that within the next 70 years, river systems, especially in the American South, are likely to experience periods with such low levels of oxygen that the rivers could “induce acute death” for certain species of fish and threaten aquatic diversity at large.
Climate-driven extreme heat may make parts of Earth too hot for humans
If global temperatures increase by 1 degree Celsius (C) or more than current levels, each year billions of people will be exposed to heat and humidity so extreme they will be unable to naturally cool themselves, according to interdisciplinary research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.