A. R. Sinclair Photography

Inside the Greenhouse Blog
March 30, 2016

Some years ago, as I was becoming acutely aware of the challenges posed by climate change, I asked myself what, if anything, a playwright could do to address this issue. The most obvious answer was to write a play about it. But somehow, that idea lacked in scope. How could a single play capture the complexity of this global problem? I searched for a more ambitious idea and eventually came up with: “Write eight plays that look at the massive social and ecological transitions taking place in the eight countries of the Arctic.” And so The Arctic Cycle was born.

Research for Sila, the first play of the Cycle, began in 2009 with a trip to Baffin Island in the territory of Nunavut. Sila examines the competing interests shaping the future of the Canadian Arctic and local Inuit population. It strives to consider all sides without casting blame, and to highlight how we – human and non-human – are all interconnected. Equal parts Inuit mythology and contemporary Arctic policy, the play uses puppetry, spoken word poetry and three different languages (English, French and Inuktitut). Sila received its world premiere at Underground Railway Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 24, 2014. The production included an extensive series of pre- and post-show conversations with scientists, activists, and local indigenous organizations, giving audiences the opportunity to explore more deeply some of the themes presented in the play. The next production will take place this summer at Cyrano’s Theatre in Alaska.

Forward, the second play of the Cycle, was inspired by a ten-day sailing expedition around the Svalbard archipelago, located halfway between Norway and the North Pole, with the Arctic Circle program in 2011. It presents a poetic history of energy development in Norway from the initial passion that drove explorer Fridtjof Nansen to the North Pole, to the consequences of over a century of fossil fuel addiction. A blend of theatre and electropop music, the play progresses backwards from 2013 to 1893, and zeroes in on close to 40 characters whose day-to-day lives illustrate how the choices we make often have unintended consequences. Woven through this history is the passionate love affair between Nansen and the character Ice. Forward was developed in collaboration with Hålogaland Teater in Tromsø, Norway and was produced at Kansas State University in February 2016. It will be translated in Norwegian this summer and produced in Norway in 2017. Read more …

A short film about climate change impacts & opportunities for action in the Boulder community

A collaborative project with the CSTPR’s Inside the Greenhouse and City of Boulder and local high school students who are members of the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board (YOAB). This short film is about climate change impacts and opportunities for action in the Boulder community.

Scott Gwozdz joins CSTPR beginning this week as a visiting scholar. Scott has more than 20 years of experience in Consumer Insight and Brand Development for Local Companies, Non Profits and Fortune 1000 Corporations.

Since 2009, Scott has taught at The Leeds School of Business in the Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR).  In addition to The World of Business and an entrepreneurship class called “New Venture Creation”, he also teaches a course he created called “Values and The Power of the Consumer.”

Scott is focused on sustainability in business and the impact business can have not only in minimizing its own externalities but also in promoting progress on environmental issues more broadly.  As more consumers demand sustainability from the brands they support, more businesses will strive to meet this demand.

At CSTPR, Scott looks forward to facilitating productive collisions between Business and Science.

Scott has a BA in Sociology from Harvard University and an MBA from the Leeds School of Business at The University of Colorado.

The Graduate Certificate Program in Science and Technology Policy of the CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research organized a competition to select two CU students to attend the AAAS “Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering” workshop in Washington, D.C. April 17-20.  At the workshop students will learn about Congress, the federal budget process, and effective science communication, and will have an opportunity to meet with their Members of Congress or congressional staff. The competition is supported by the University of Colorado Graduate School and Center for STEM Learning.

Through a highly competitive selection process Angela Boag (Environmental Studies) and Sarah Welsh-Huggins (Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering) were chosen as this year’s winners to attend the workshop.  Their biographies are listed below. Congratulations Angela and Sarah!

Angela Boag
Angela E. Boag is a Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder investigating the relationships between climate change, forest management and land ownership. She has a Master’s in Forestry from the University of British Columbia and worked for environmental advocacy organizations before returning to graduate school. Now a member of the Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR) research project led by Dr. Joel Hartter, Angela is studying how changing climate and wildfire regimes impact forest resilience, as well as how private forest owners adapt to these changing conditions. She is passionate about linking social and biophysical research to solve complex problems, and advocates for policies that advance environmental sustainability.

Sarah Welsh-Huggins
Originally from Columbus, OH, Sarah is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Civil Systems program within the Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. Her doctoral research assesses the economic and environmental life-cycle tradeoffs that arise from designing buildings to be both sustainable and hazard-resilient. At CU Boulder, Sarah has also completed a graduate certificate in Engineering for Developing Communities (EDC). Her EDC fieldwork in northeast India in 2014 led her to pursue a M.S. in Structural Engineering, consecutive to her Ph.D. studies, to investigate the seismic risk of hillside buildings in the Indian state of Mizoram. She is the current Co-President of CU Boulder’s student chapter of the national Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, which supports multi-disciplinary research and practice to reduce global earthquake risk. In 2012, Sarah earned a dual B.S./B.A. in Civil Engineering and International Studies from Lafayette College. Post-graduate school, her professional goal is to lead the creation of new approaches for holistic community and urban planning by improving communication channels between citizens, scientists, engineers, and policymakers. She seeks to promote sustainable community development through interdisciplinary solutions that protect natural resources, mitigate natural hazard risk, and ensure a safe and equitable future for generations to come.

‘Whiplash Journalism’ Illustrated: See global Climate Change Coverage Thru Feb’16, Post #‎COP21

The Media and Climate Change Observatory (MECCO) monitors fifty sources across twenty-five countries in seven different regions around the world. MECCO assembles the data by accessing archives through the Lexis Nexis, Proquest and Factiva databases via the University of Colorado libraries. These fifty sources are selected through a decision processes involving weighting of three main factors:

• geographical diversity (favoring a greater geographical range)
• circulation (favoring higher circulating publications
• reliable access to archives over time (favoring those accessible consistently for longer periods of time)

World, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, & United States (Updated through February 2016)

Japan Numbers now updated for 2016

Figure Citations
Nacu-Schmidt, A., Andrews, K., Boykoff, M., Daly, M., Gifford, L., Luedecke, G., and McAllister, L. (2016). World Newspaper Coverage of Climate Change or Global Warming, 2004-2016. Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Web. [Date of access.] http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/media_coverage.

Dr. Leah Goldfarb joins CSTPR beginning this week, as a visiting scholar through August 2016.

With twenty years of service, Dr. Goldfarb is an experienced international environmental policy expert with scientific training in the area of climate change. She has extensive knowledge of the scientific community, international environmental bodies, and governmental agencies.

For just over a decade, she worked at the International Council for Science (ICSU), where she represented the Council at meetings with organizations such as, UN¹s Environment Programme, the UN’s Commission on Sustainable Development, UNESCO and many international environmental research organizations.

While her academic training was done in the U.S., she has been based in France for the majority of her professional career.

Currently she is an adviser to C3 Boulder: Climate Culture Collaborative and a visiting scholar at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR/CU) until August 2016.

She has authored and contributed to many academic articles, including an article in Science dealing with the Grand Challenges in the area of Global Sustainability.

While at CSTPR, she plans to work on topics related to the science-policy interface with a focus on the international climate change assessment process.

Leah has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Colorado (1997).