How to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate
Irina Marinov, associate professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, leads a research community focused on understanding global climate impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities to enable local action.
2 min. read
Addressing climate impacts requires informed actions at local, national, and global levels. As a result, there is a growing demand for data visualization tools that can help navigate information related to climate science, its impacts, and potential solutions.
In 2021 Marinov, research associate and oceanographer Anna Cabre, and philosophy professor Michael Weisberg, with support from Penn Global, Perry World House, and Penn students, started to develop the Global Climate Security Atlas (the Atlas), an interactive digital tool showcasing climate impacts and vulnerability factors on a global scale.
To build on the Atlas’ functionalities, starting in 2024, Marinov used EII research community support to gather experts from around campus to collaborate on long-term climate action and identify regions highly susceptible to climate-related risks.
Geared toward enhancing climate action, the Atlas catalogs critical risk elements. “Risk is defined as the climate hazard times the socioeconomic issue,” explains Marinov. Serving as a base for discussion for the research community, the Atlas is organized in nine topics. The topics include temperature and precipitation projections, as well as projected impacts, such as extreme heat events, floods, droughts, and ice melting. The Atlas also provides an overview of risk assessments for climate-related harms, such as food and water insecurity, biodiversity loss, and social and political vulnerabilities, along with the scientific sources behind these calculations.
Beyond bridging the gap between climate science and action through the Atlas, the Global Climate Security experts have engaged in dynamic education and information sessions. As part of Marinov’s course, students map climate variables like global temperature anomalies or extreme heat events by analyzing CMIP6 forecasts and satellite images from NASA.
To enable local action, Marinov presented about climate impacts on Philadelphia and the intersections with science at an Office of Government and Community Affairs (OGCA) First Thursday Community Meeting, led by Glenn D. Bryan, OGCA’s assistant vice president. These information sessions provide a valuable platform to discuss climate impacts and propose local solutions in West Philadelphia. In a world where access to accurate information is crucial for driving change, empowering communities is essential for enabling collective action to mitigate climate risk.
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