Climate Change

It’s getting harder to figure out whether you live in a flood zone or not

A Wharton School study found that homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 were far less likely to default if they were inside the federal flood zone.

Bill Gates doesn’t regret his controversial climate memo

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says, “We don’t have decades to address the climate crisis.”

A researcher walking through a glacier in Greenland.

Helheim Glacier: New information on sea-level rise

For nearly a decade, Leigh Stearns and collaborators aimed a laser scanner system at Greenland’s Helheim Glacier. Their long-running survey reveals that Helheim’s massive calving events don’t behave the way scientists once thought, reframing how ice loss contributes to sea-level rise.

5 min. read

Category 6 is the new hurricane normal, scientists warn

Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that it no longer makes sense to artificially cap the hurricane scale at five while wind-based metrics continue to be used.

Bill Gates claims climate change won’t destroy humanity after all

Micheal Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences discusses Bill Gates’ shift in rhetoric on climate.

Sanya Carley appointed vice provost for climate science, policy, and action

Carley is an expert on energy policy, affordability, and transition.

2 min. read

Researcher Xin Sun injects substance into glass vials.

Ocean microbes are a key to climate modeling

In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.

3 min. read

Perry World House conference on climate progress since Paris Agreement

Earlier in October, Perry World House hosted the “Climate Cooperation in Transition” workshop with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research’s Global Governance Innovation project, which featured a stocktake of the progress made on climate since the Paris Agreement.

Have carbon offsets failed over the past 25 years?

Joseph Romm of the School of Arts & Sciences conducted research on the effectiveness of carbon offsetting to date, concluding the practice is ineffective and riddled with “intractable” problems.

A Taylor Swift fan with friendship bracelets makes a heart sign with their hands.

Taylor Swift, storytelling, and climate communication

Clean energy expert and senior research fellow at Penn Joseph Romm says that Taylor Swift’s lyrics offer storytelling techniques that can be applied for impact-driven climate communications.