Public News Service: For 30 years, the University of Washington’s Climate Impact Group has worked with partners across the Northwest to support science-backed strategies to promote climate resilience.
The group has translated university research into practical tools, such as modeling future stream flow to prepare for larger floods and more severe droughts.
According to its current director, Susan Dickerson-Lange, the group was founded to address a critical gap – a lack of local scientific data to back up regional climate change planning.
“Even as we address greenhouse gases and make the future more livable, we still need to think about adapting to those changes in the near term,” said Dickerson-Lange. “And so, we are trying to reduce the pain of those impacts in the near term.”
Over the years, CIG has worked on diverse projects, from helping state agencies build bridges resilient to future floods, to developing life-saving heat strategies.
Dickerson-Lange said she looks forward to continuing their partnership with regional tribes, providing them with technical resources, reducing policy barriers and helping secure funding for climate adaptation.
The group will also continue to host the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center this year, where Dickerson-Lange said they work with land and resource managers to help inform decisions related to water, forests and wildlife.
She stressed that in the face of ever-increasing extreme heat, floods and wildfires, there is more to be done.
“We’re also trying to do a lot more training and building the capacity of other organizations to internally plan for,” said Dickerson-Lange, “prepare for and adapt to climate change.”
Former Climate Impact Group Director Amy Snover said it’s easy to feel demoralized by climate change, as the public rarely hears about the efforts underway to build resilience.
She added that a lot of the work isn’t glamorous – like using climate science to plan for reservoir management or the size of fish culverts – but it is happening.
“And I always call that the ‘happy secret’ of climate change that I wish people knew about ,” said Snover, “because it would give you hope, and it would make you really proud of the good effort and good thinking that’s going on in the region.”
Written by Isobel Charl