School of Natural Resources and Environment

Kevin Merrill's blog

Ice-age reptile extinctions provide a glimpse of likely responses to human-caused climate change

A wave of reptile extinctions on the Greek islands over the past 15,000 years may offer a preview of the way plants and animals will respond as the world rapidly warms due to human-caused climate change, according to a University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues. The Greek island extinctions also highlight the critical importance of preserving habitat corridors that will enable plants and animals to migrate in response to climate change, thereby maximizing their chances of survival.

COP16 update: Week One

Dec. 6, 2010

During the first week of the UN climate conference in Cancun, Erb Institute student Miguel Sossa helped a non-profit agency launch a sustainable-marketing campaign, ate lunch with like-minded students from across the world, observed as foreign dignitaries positioned their appeals, shook hands with a top UN official who replied "Go Blue!," and shared thoughts on the rice trade with an ambassador on his ride back to his hotel.

Dean Bierbaum contributes to White House report on energy policy

Two University of Michigan professors contributed to a White House report this week that calls for the United States to craft a government-wide federal energy policy and update it regularly with strategic reviews every four years. The report provides a roadmap for the federal role in transforming the U.S. energy system within one to two decades—a transformation that is necessary, the report concludes, for reasons of economic competitiveness, environmental stewardship and national security.

SNRE students part of U-M contingent at U.N. climate conference

Thirty University of Michigan students, alumni, faculty and friends are attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico. The two-week conference starts today, Monday, Nov. 29. Representatives from the countries that signed the 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that addresses climate change and adaptation to rising temperatures, are participating. Of the 10 students in the group, six are from the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Facilitating Climate Change Responses

Hoffman contributes to National Academies book on climate change

Andrew Hoffman, associate director of the Erb Institute and SNRE professor, participated in a series of workshops addressing the behavioral and social science aspects of global climate change. The recently published book Facilitating Climate Change Responses documents the information presented in the workshop presentations and discussions. This material illustrates some of the ways the behavioral and social sciences can contribute to the new era of climate research. Professor Hoffman delivered the introductory comments and moderated a panel discussion for the session on the greening of business, which is covered in Chapter 4.

PitE student creates video documenting summer course in Kenya

Jackie Turner, a U-M undergraduate with a double major in the Program in the Environment (PitE) and Screen Arts and Cultures, found that her interests in environment, sustainability, developing nations and documentary filmmaking converged when she traveled to Mpala, a 48,000-acre wildlife conservancy and biodiversity research center in Kenya, as part of a class taught by SNRE professors Rebecca Hardin and Johannes Foufopoulos.

$400K grant awarded for forest research in Tanzania

A postdoctoral research fellow at SNRE's International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research initiative, Lauren Persha, along with co-investigator and SNRE Professor Arun Agrawal, have received a nearly $400,000 grant from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) to investigate the outcomes of Tanzania's ongoing forest management systems.

SNRE's Miller among early-career scientists honored by White House

Three University of Michigan researchers, including SNRE's Shelie Miller, are among the 85 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Ten federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Participating agencies award these talented researchers up to five years of funding to further their work in support of critical government missions.

Considering alternative research strategies in landscape architecture with M. Elen Deming

On Nov. 9, M. Elen Deming will deliver the Clarence Roy/JJR lecture, also part of the Dean's Speaker Series. "This talk is for anyone who is struggling with a thesis," she said. A few years ago, M. Elen Deming and Simon Swaffield, both professors of landscape architecture, found themselves editing two of only four English-language scholarly peer-reviewed journals in the field of landscape architecture. The two found themselves playing the role of gatekeeper for the discipline and, in working with a range of peer reviewers, found widely varying standards for evaluating research. Some reviewers championed deductive investigations, others inductive; some only accepted objective work, while others favored subjective artistic work.

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