The Earth Futures Institute is proud to announce the fourth year of its Frontier Fellowship awards. Oversubscription was strongest, nearly 3 to 1, and seven fellowships were awarded, the largest group yet. Frontier Fellowships enable sustained, in-depth original research by UCSC undergraduates in partnershipwith two mentoring faculty. Fellows begin research in spring quarter. A $6000 stipend allows full-time focus during the summer, and the work … Continue reading Earth Futures Institute Frontier Fellows for 2025-2026

The JCCCSR is a standing committee of the Academic Senate, which is composed of three subcommittees focused on research, teaching, and operations. Each subcommittee is Co-Chaired by a member of the Academic Senate and a representative from campus administrative leadership. Together, these subcommittees advance sustainability, climate, and resilience goals as articulated in Leading the Change, UCSC’s strategic plan. These goals include the following: Co-Chairs meet 2-3 … Continue reading New Joint Committee on Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience

Talk Time and Location: 2pm – 3:30 pm, Engineering 2 rm 599 This presentation by Mark Stemen describes the development and impact of our award-winning Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in which over 200 faculty members on 24 CSU & CC campuses explored ways to integrate climate change and resilience into their courses. Participants represented a diverse range of disciplines—from science and engineering to the social … Continue reading Teaching Climate Change and Resilience Across the Curriculum

The interview recording below is based of and inspired from this interview on Cosmic Knowledge and the Long-term Strategy of the Human Race with Sandra Faber and the Department of Physics at University of Oxford. Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? This episode, we partner with Radiolab to take stock of the essential raw materials that enable us to … Continue reading Sandra Faber’s Interview with NPR’s Radio Lab: Can the economy grow forever?

A new course at UC Santa Cruz is turning climate crisis anxiety into action. “Bending the Curve: Climate Education for All” equips students from every discipline with interactive lessons, expert lectures, and real-world projects to tackle issues from sea-level rise to environmental injustice. Led by sociology researcher and Baskin Engineering lecturer Les Guliasi, the course has already sparked initiatives like the student-led Sunrise climate coalition … Continue reading Bending the Curve: A New UCSC Course that Empowers Students to Tackle Climate Change

In accordance with UC President Drake’s mandate that all UC campuses submit a timeline for (partial) decarbonization by the end of December  ‘24, the campuses turned in these goals. The UCSC Sustainability Office hosted a February webinar on UCSC’s timeline; the recording and slides can be found here, and a press release on the same topic is here.  Unfortunately UCSC’s choice of a 2045 deadline … Continue reading UC (partial) Decarbonization Timeline December ’24

In this accessible annual update, Ripple, Mann, Rockström, Oreskes and collaborators “analyze the latest trends in a wide array of planetary vital signs [and] review notable recent climate-related disasters, spotlight important climate-related topics, and discuss needed policy interventions.” They conclude, “it is our moral duty and that of our institutions to alert humanity to the growing threats that we face as clearly as possible and … Continue reading The 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth

January 15, 2025 The Earth Futures Institute has just announced the opening of applications for the fourth year of Frontier Fellowships. Frontier Fellowships support original interdisciplinary research by UCSC undergraduates on topics related to planning Earth’s future.  Each fellowship lasts a year and includes a summer stipend to enable a strong focus on the project during the valuable summer months.  All UCSC undergraduates with prospective graduation … Continue reading UCSC Earth Futures Institute Opens Applications for Fourth Cohort of Frontier Fellowships.