News
Environmental variability and global change are discussed more and more frequently in news articles and programs as the general public becomes increasingly aware of the rapid environmental transformations taking place around the world. The Institute of the Environment produces general interest articles about current UA research relevant to the environment, spotlights that chronicle the work of IoE faculty, and other articles, including a series on drought in the Southwest. The most recent articles are listed below. Older articles and links to UA News press releases also are available in the News Archive.
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If greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current path, by mid-century Tucson will have a projected additional 34 days a year of 100-plus degree days and 25 more 110-plus degree days. We must prepare for the impacts we cannot avoid and slow climate change dramatically, says UA scientist Gregg Garfin.
BioView, produced by students in the UA's fall 2012 science journalism class, is a 32-page full-color magazine that captures the past, present, and future of Biosphere 2.
A three-time alumnus with a joint appointment at UA’s Southwest Center, Sheridan has never been too long gone from the Sonoran Desert he loves.
The Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) project at the UA focuses on a handful of key issues, from sustainable water-supply planning and the impacts of climate change on human health to examining the cost of protecting ecosystems against competing energy and water uses.
Researchers at the UA's Tumamoc Hill have digitized 106 years of growth data on individual plants, making the information available for study by people all over the world. Knowing how plants respond to changing conditions over many decades provides new insights into how ecosystems behave.
Warming trends and other indicators suggest warmer-than-average conditions are in store for the May–July period in the Southwest; forecasts also call for below-average precipitation in northern Arizona and in all of New Mexico, but with higher uncertainty.
The UA has been honored in the EPA's first-ever Campus Rainworks Challenge, a new design competition that inspires the next generation of landscape architects, planners and engineers to develop innovative green infrastructure systems. The proposed UA project would convert a campus parking lot into a common area with storm water retention basins, underground water harvesting cisterns and more.
The UA's Project WET, which stands for Water Education for Teachers, is designed to teach elementary and middle school students about Tucson's water scarcity and how to conserve.
Stuart Thomson's research involves the use and development of devices to determine the time and temperature history of rocks and minerals. His most recent project applied these techniques to determine the age of Antarctica’s subglacial fjords. Thomson is a research scientist in the UA department of geosciences.
For its commitment to sustainability in athletic facilities and programming, the UA has been accepted to the Green Sports Alliance, a national nonprofit organization that aims to help sports teams, venues and leagues enhance environmental performance. Among the environmentally friendly athletic facilities on campus is the Student Recreation Center, the first campus recreation center in the country to achieve Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.