| NSF Org: |
RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 10, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 10, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 2131848 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Barbara Ransom
bransom@nsf.gov (703)292-7792 RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | May 15, 2021 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $49,859.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $49,859.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
45 BEACON ST BOSTON MA US 02108-3631 (617)227-2425 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite Washington DC US 20005-3928 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Integrat & Collab Ed & Rsearch |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Extreme weather events, changing patterns of precipitation, stronger and more frequent tornados and hurricanes/typhoons, larger than normal oscillations of the polar vortex, changes in the sun cycle, global warming due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, early arrival of spring, reduced snowpack in the mountains, melting glaciers and icesheets, all are manifestations that are impacting the environment and human habitation causing serious societal and ecological problems. As such, global climate change is one of the most pressing and immediate problems facing the world today. To assist in the identification and devising of roadmaps of potential workable solutions to help ameliorate impacts of climate change-driven issues that are negatively impacting society and the world and that can be addressed within a 2 to 3 year timeframe, the American Meteorological Society (AMS), a community of 13,000 atmospheric and geospace scientists is positioned to run an information gathering activity to solicit ideas and input from its extensive network of experts, nationally and internationally. Broader Impacts of the activities will be the generation of potential climate change solutions to mitigate the impact of a changing climate on environmental, societal, and economic arenas. They also include the engagement of early career scientists and members of underrepresented groups whose lives and careers are most likely to be impacted over time. Additional activities include outreach to K-12 and the public to provide information to help them better understand the challenges of climate change and possible solutions that can be implemented.
To help solicit ideas and possible mitigation of some of the serious impacts of climate change, the American Meteorological Society, the largest professional society of weather and climate scientist in the US, will run a series of broad, inclusive, and results-driven activities focused on engaging the brightest minds in weather and climate science to identify climate-related issues, with accompanying roadmaps, that can be addressed and that will result in major advances within a timeframe of 2 to 3 years. This will involve a series of virtual meetings, webinars, crowdsourcing events, one-on-one conversations, panels of experts, etc. to generate ideas and obtain convergence on potentially workable solutions to specific aspects of climate change with the biggest impacts on society and the economy. Part of the effort will focus on the socialization and promotion of translational research and its value to both climate change solutions as well as the academic research enterprise.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The people of the United States are increasingly turning serious attention to the importance of innovation to America’s future. If a country representing only 4% of the world’s population aspires to be Madeleine Albright’s “indispensable nation,” it must not only embody the noblest ideals but also be the most innovative. Innovation is more than the advance of science and knowledge; it extends to harnessing such advance to the benefit of life. With that in mind, a national conversation is underway on the future of the National Science Foundation (NSF), among other agencies, that has the potential to broaden the NSF portfolio to include more emphasis on application of known science and on technology. As NSF contemplates such future possibilities, it has asked a handful of science and professional societies to suggest initiatives that would substantially accelerate national and world progress toward coping with climate change— initiatives that, though longer term, would begin to make noticeable progress in as little as 2–3 years. NSF outreach included the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
INTELLECTUAL MERIT
AMS is fertile ground for such an effort. Membership includes some 12,000 professionals, spanning meteorology, climatology, hydrology, oceanography, and space weather; the full range of the social sciences; and related technologies, including instrumentation, observing platforms, and all aspects of IT. AMS is both a scientific and a professional society. Its membership includes expert practitioners as well as scientists: service providers, operational forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, consulting meteorologists and climatologists, K–12 teachers, social scientists, and public-, private-, and academic-sector institutions. Through these members and local chapters, AMS has a visible and respected place-based footprint nationwide. Membership, though concentrated in the Americas, is truly global. These broad and diverse elements, spanning every aspect of basic science and application for both public good and commercial profit, made the task a good fit. In response to the NSF request, AMS proposed and received one such small grant, which was awarded on 10 May 2021. AMS then sought input and ideas from its membership. Some were provided through small focus group sessions. These involved members representative of the diverse professional perspectives described above, as well as the gender-, racial-, ethnic-, and other dimensions characterizing the diversity of the larger AMS Policy Program 1 society. Representation included early and mid-career professionals in addition to those later in their careers. The focus groups included members from the private sector, academia, and government, including some who worked in the energy sector, broadcast meteorologists, teachers, and a variety of researchers. More senior participants include those who are either currently in or had recently held leadership positions in all three sectors, some at the highest levels. In addition, AMS created a dedicated web portal to allow written input from individuals and requested and encouraged input from the full membership, to the extent the compressed time frame allowed. The investigators have then provided this synthesis of the inputs. These take the form of
6 principles to be kept in mind
- Progress is needed in advancing knowledge and understanding and applying knowledge with respect to mitigation and in adaptation
- Broad participation is needed (all sectors of society and the vast majority of people)
- Inclusion, equity, and justice are crucial
- Objective measures of progress are essential
- Climate change is: a stand-alone problem, inextricably linked with other issues, and symptomatic of larger societal challenges and opportunities
- Efforts ranging from individual to global scales are needed to address climate change
7 areas of opportunity
- A comprehensive plan for observations and monitoring
- Enable broadly distributed efforts and public participation (i.e., place-based approaches)
- Tailor scientific assessments for decision-making
- Modernize climate science (i.e., computing, workforce, scientific practices, and rewards and incentives)
- Develop future workforce (education: informal/K–12, undergraduate/graduate, continuous learning)
- Develop effective strategies for public understanding and engagement for all audiences
- Enable and strengthen partnerships
BROADER IMPACTS
Opening geoscientists’ mindsets to extend to societal applications at scale, should by itself expand society’s toolkit for coping with global change. But as the recent Glasgow COP suggests, the world is actively hoping for such help from the geosciences. As the world sees geoscience mobilizing, it will be encouraged to accelerate the uptake of fruitful ideas. And success stories with respect to global change will encourage similar scientist-society engagement across the entire global agenda, ranging from pandemics to cybertechnology and even extending to fundamental ideas of inclusion, equity, and justice.
Last Modified: 12/30/2021
Modified by: William H Hooke
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