CSTPR has closed May 31, 2020: Therefore, this webpage will no longer be updated. Individual projects are or may still be ongoing however. Please contact CIRES should you have any questions.
Ogmius Newsletter

Center News

Max Boykoff Receives 2020 Thomas Jefferson Award

Max Boykoff was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Award in the faculty category. This award honors students, staff, and faculty members who advance the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. These include broad interests in literature, arts and sciences, and public affairs, a strong concern for the advancement of higher education, a deeply seated sense of individual civic responsibility, and a profound commitment to the welfare and rights of the individual.

Max also recently received another Faculty award from the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences (CARTSS) Steering Committee. Congratulations Max!

AAAS Local Science Engagement Network Gets Under Way

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has partnered with pilot initiatives in Missouri and Colorado to integrate scientists with local and state policy-makers, community stakeholders, and the public to leverage scientific evidence and inform efforts to address varied local impacts of climate change.

“Instead of focusing on global theoretical concepts of climate change or impacts that are happening in far-flung communities in this country or internationally, we want local scientists to talk about how they can inform local decisions that improve the lives of people sitting in the room,” said Dan Barry, director of AAAS’s Local Science Engagement Network.

In Colorado, Maxwell Boykoff, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research and Matthew Druckenmiller, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, also are at work developing the Colorado Local Science Engagement Network which recently launched in March.

5 Takeaways From Colorado Climate Education Webinar

Getting people to care about climate change as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe is tough—but not impossible, several Colorado political and environmental leaders said during a webinar Tuesday hosted by CU Boulder.

“Power Dialog: Climate Solutions for Colorado” was hosted by Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Max Boykoff, Associate Professor of Communication Phaedra Pezzullo and engineering undergraduate student Andrew Benham. Similar events were hosted by universities nationwide. At least 251 people tuned in from across the state for the event.

The recorded webinar, plus subject-area online resources, is available to watch online. Here are five key takeaways:

1. We could have imagined this future
2. Environmental health is directly tied to human health
3. The importance of a ‘just transition’
4. We are capable of radical change
5. Local level changes will make the difference

The Colorado webinar hosted by CU Boulder was co-sponsored by the Colorado Energy Office, the Conference on World Affairs, the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, the Boulder Faculty Climate Science & Education Committee, the Media and Climate Change Observatory, and Inside the Greenhouse at CU Boulder.

Student News

Patrick Chandler CSTPR Grad student Patrick Chandler was recently awarded a Summer 2020 Fellowship from the Center for Humanities & the Arts. This award was given to support his work in the Creative Climate Change Curriculum project. Congrats Patrick!
Olivia Pearman CSTPR grad student Olivia Pearman recently was awarded a CIRES Graduate Student Research Award for 2020. The Graduate Student Research Award program was established to promote student scholarship and research excellence. The goal of the program is to recognize the scholarship and merit of CIRES’ outstanding graduate students. Congrats Olivia!
Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey CSTPR grad student Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey recently received an Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) summer research grant for work with IBS researchers Drs. Amanda Carrico and Lori Peek of the IBS Environment and Society Program to study the role of inter-community social ties and migration on knowledge transmission about adaptive agricultural practices among Bangladeshi farmers. He also received a CU Boulder Graduate School Summer Fellowship to conduct dissertation research, analysis and writing. Lastly, Jeremiah just received an Association of American Geographers (AAG) and Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) Student Travel Award! AAG and GTU have partnered to raise funds to support student attendance at the AAG annual meeting. The 2021 Annual AAG meeting will be held in Seattle next spring. Congrats on your recent awards Jeremiah!
David Oonk CSTPR Grad student David Oonk recently successfully completed his PhD defense “Assessing the Present and Future of Fracking Governance: Science, Expertise, and Policy of Fracking in Colorado’s Denver Julesburg Basin” with a strong dissertation and oral defense. David was advised by Dr. Max Boykoff and his committee members are Dr. Shelly Miller, Dr. Michaele Ferguson, Dr. Steve Vanderheiden and Dr. Morgan Brazilian (Colorado School of Mines). David, congrats on this major milestone!

2020 ITG Comedy & Climate Change Short Video Competition Winners

Inside the Greenhouse held an International competition to harness the powers of climate comedy through compelling, resonant and meaningful videos. The 2020 winners were announced and shown at the Stand Up For Climate Change Comedy Show held on April 22.

First Place Winner
Climate Change in South Africa: How bad can it be? by Stephen Horn and Politically Aweh

Second Place Winner
Do people know more about the actual universe or Marvel Universe? by Rollie Williams & An Inconvenient Talk Show

Third Place Winner (tie)
Be a Climate Voter by Celia Gurney

Third Place Winner (tie)
Too late to stop Climate Change? by Adam Levy