Author: Travis Swaim

India’s Society for Community Participation and Empowerment (SCOPE) is not the prototypical philanthropic organization. Based on the same core principles employed by its predecessor, India’s Bharitiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), SCOPE focuses on treating farms and farmers as an industry rather than a charity. Unlike BAIF however, SCOPE focuses on local, regional problems rather than the whole of India. According to its website, SCOPE aims to “create opportunities of sustainable …

According to the National Weather Service, lightning kills an average of 53 people in the US each year, with summer as the peak season.   In support of Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June 22-28, 2014) the University of Maryland will offer a free one-hour "Lightning Protection 101" course,  presented by the Lightning Safety Alliance. The class will teach participants about how lightning protection works, including the five essential elements of effective …

Dr. Sujay Kaushal has always loved water. “I was inspired by growing up near streams and rivers during my childhood and an early appreciation and love of running waters,” said Kaushal, the 2014 recipient of the Council on the Environment’s Junior Faculty Award. Over the past five years Kaushal has exemplified his commitment to freshwater health, collaborating with local and national water management officials as well as his graduate students to apply his research to the treatment of …

With help from more than 300 experts and a 60-person advisory committee, the U.S. Global Change Research Program released its third National Climate Assessment (NCA) on May 7, 2014. Established in 1989, the congressional mandated program is responsible for disseminating information, forecasts, and responses related to various types of global climate change. The program’s research mission culminates every four years with the creation of an NCA. The 2014 report spans 30 chapters and is more …

The flight is eight hours long. The plane is no commercial airliner; there are limited seats, lots of equipment. The flight can get quite noisy, and passengers often wear headsets to talk to each other. They also wear thermal clothing and bring their own food. “There’s certainly no in-flight service,” joked ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist, Dr. Sinead Farrell. Cruising at 1,200 feet above miles of sea ice is just another routine flight for Farrell and other researchers of NASA’s Operation …

Bridging the gap between climate science and the business world in order to help companies prepare for the effects of climate change is a job that has taken Guillermo “Willy” Accame from The Royal Society of the U.K. to the White House. Accame, a University of Maryland distinguished alumnus and current ESSIC and CIRUN industry liaison, said improving communication between climate scientists and the private industry, both by making climate data produced by NOAA and other research institutions …