Generating integrated climate change research
The Griffith Climate Change Response Program leads Griffith University’s research into climate change adaptation and mitigation. As climate change issues cut across many fields of study our research projects are transdisciplinary. The program brings together the wealth of Griffith research expertise from across the University, enabling climate change problems to be addressed in a comprehensive manner and often in conjunction with our international partners.
New Video - Combating climate change in the Pacific
Climate change is presenting an existential threat in the Pacific; with island nation states not only a loss of property, but a loss of culture and identity. The EcoAdapt project identifies ecosystem-based approaches for climate change adaptation in the coastal zone of Pacific island states and territories in the face of a rapidly changing climate.
RESEARCH IN FOCUS - THE BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE VIRTUAL LABORATORY
The Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Laboratory (BCCVL) is a “one stop modelling shop” that simplifies the process of biodiversity-climate change modelling. A new infographic has been released about the BCCVL, including its partnership with the ‘EcoScience Research Data Cloud and Data Enhanced Virtual Laboratory’ (aka – EcoCloud).
New Report Released - Vanuatu
Griffith University has released a report, Vanuatu: Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM). The Report contains a national-level assessment of Vanuatu’s social-ecological systems in the context of building resilience to climate change.
News from the Griffith Climate Change Response Program
Climate change in the news
- Rising temperatures from climate change threatens NT turtles [audio] - 12 November, ABC
- Climate change will make Qld’s ecosystems unrecognisable – it’s up to us if we want to stop that - 12 November, The Conversation
- Fire chief: climate change helped make California wildfires more devastating - 12 November, The Guardian
- Climate change, not overfishing, is devastating shellfish environments - 12 November, NBC
- Climate Change Blamed for Historic Low Water Levels in German Rivers [video] - 11 November, VOA News
- EU Commissioner calls for more prevention to deal with climate change - 9 November, New Europe
- Climate Change: Arctic 'no safe harbour' for breeding birds - 9 November, BBC
- How Climate-Change Fiction, or “Cli-Fi,” Forces Us to Confront the Incipient Death of the Planet - 9 November, The New Yorker
- Americans elected mayors who care about climate change - 9 November, The Conversation
- Climate change causing more severe wildfires, larger insect outbreaks in temperate forests - 7 November, ScienceDaily
Snapshots from recent activities and meetings
On 2 & 3 November 2018 the Collaborative Australia-Indonesia Program for Sustainable Development and Climate Change was launched in Jakarta. The two-day event included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the Program between Griffith University and Universitas Indonesia, followed by academic discussions in the area of sustainable development and climate change. Prof Brendan Mackey, Director, Griffith Climate Change Response Program (GCCRP) is pictured at the MoU signing. GCCRP will lead efforts to develop, seek funding for, and implement externally funded collaborative multidisciplinary research projects involving Griffith and Indonesian research institutions and government agencies within the broad field of sustainable development and climate change.
On 24 August 2018 the Griffith Climate Change Response Program hosted a Panel Discussion and Book Launch, centered around the theme - Climate change update: Moving forward on adaptation. The eminent panel - Prof Mark Howden (ANU Climate Change Institute), Prof Roger Street (Oxford University) and Georgine Roodenrys (Qld Government) shed light on the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report and shared insights into how the Irish, UK, Canadian and Japanese governments are responding to growing climate risks and the state of play with the Queensland Climate Adaptation Strategy. The book, Limits to Climate Change Adaptation, was also launched. Dr Johanna Nalau, co-editor of the book and IPCC 6th Assessment Report Lead Author, presented some of the main findings from the book.
On 23 August 2018, special guest, Professor Seon Ki Park, from the Dept of Environmental Science & Engineering and the Dept of Climate & Energy Systems Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea, presented a seminar, Integrated regional environment/climate prediction system: Coupled modeling, parameter estimation and data assimilation. Professor Park discussed Atmospheric Sciences at Ewha Womans University; Numerical Weather/Climate/Environment Prediction; Sensitivity Studies; Subgrid-scale Parameterizations; Optimal Parameter Estimation; Coupled Data Assimilation; Projection of Local Climate Change; and RECIPE (Regional Environment/Climate Prediction System).
Photo - Dr Serena Lee, Professor Brendan Mackey, and Dr Willow Hallgren from the Griffith Climate Change Response Program with guest Professor Park.
On 21 August 2018, special guest Professor Patrick Nunn, Associate Director, Sustainability Research Centre, University of Sunshine Coast presented a seminar: Improving the Effectiveness and Sustainability of Climate-Change Adaptation Outcomes in the Pacific. The seminar included a discussion about the role of faith/spirituality in contributing to the acceptance of adaptation by affected communities, especially those in rural parts of the Pacific Islands region where environmental governance (and decision-making more generally) is commonly filtered through religious beliefs was the focus of some of the discussion.
Photo - Professor Brendan Mackey (Griffith Climate Change Response Program) and Professor Nunn.
On 15 August 2018 Professor Brendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, presented a seminar at the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at the James Cook University in Cairns. The abstract for his seminar was: Ecosystems throughout the world are being degraded from modern developments including industrial scale land use and transport infrastructure. At the same time, we are experiencing unprecedented human-forced climate change. Together, they are leading to a break down in natural connectivity and dramatic shifts in ecosystem dynamics and species responses. Large scale connectivity conservation has been proposed as an appropriate and necessary response to these threats to ecosystem integrity and biodiversity.
The Griffith Climate Change Response Program was a sponsor of the Narratives of Climate Change Symposium which was held at the University of Newcastle on 5 & 6 July 2018. The symposium was an interdisciplinary collaboration inspired by the possibility that the gap between scientific knowledge and effective political, legal and social action can be bridged by alternative forms of narrative, incorporated into and developed by artistic creations, works of fiction, social and other media, performances of all types including theatrical, activist and absurdist, visionary planning and innovative litigation such as the Children’s Trust lawsuits.
Dr Esther Onyango (in photo) presented at the Symposium as did Professor Brendan Mackey of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program.