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Amanda Mott
Director of News and Media
ammott@upenn.edu
Climate Change
Is climate change making the allergy season worse?
Is climate change making the allergy season worse?
The timeline for seasonal hay fever has expanded in recent years. With the warmer temperatures, and a longer frost-free season, we may be exposed to more allergenic plants, leading to longer and more severe allergy seasons.
Tackling climate change on all levels
Tackling climate change on all levels
At the Perry World House Global Shifts Colloquium, experts from around the world discussed what governments, and individuals, can do to avoid the ultimate catastrophe.
Power struggle: Nuclear energy contends with climate change
Power struggle: Nuclear energy contends with climate change
Earth and Environmental Science Department Chair Reto Gieré explains how 40 years after the worst nuclear accident in the U.S., a global energy dilemma endures.
Confronting inequities, sharing solutions
Confronting inequities, sharing solutions
At the annual meeting of the Global Water Alliance, faculty, students, and practitioners shared solutions and challenges around the issues of water access, sanitation, and hygiene in the U.S. and around the world.
The future of urban waters
The future of urban waters
Students and faculty of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities’ Liquid Histories course study the impact of rising sea levels from the banks of Philadelphia and Mumbai.
The language of climate change—and the Anthropocene
The language of climate change—and the Anthropocene
Hanna E. Morris, a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication who researches environmental communication, explains the sudden rise of ‘Anthropocene’ as the latest buzzword in the climate dialogue.
Procrastinating on climate change
Procrastinating on climate change
Joseph Kable, Baird Term Professor of Psychology, studies how people make (or don’t make) decisions. He calls the circumstances around climate change a “perfect storm of features” that’s leading us to not act.
Designing with resilience to prepare for a changing world
Designing with resilience to prepare for a changing world
Urban designers joined with architects, engineers, city planners, sociologists, and other experts to share strategies for adapting to rising sea levels, fiercer storms, and sinking shorelines, coinciding with the launch of the Certificate in Urban Resilience at the School of Design.
Money alone won’t address climate change goals—we need policy action
Money alone won’t address climate change goals—we need policy action
Wharton’s Eric W. Orts joins other experts to analyze the likely outcome of the 24th annual Conference of the Parties, the two-week U.N. meeting where a plan of action to reverse climate change is the goal.
Extreme weather won’t sway climate skeptics
Extreme weather won’t sway climate skeptics
Experiencing extreme weather is not enough to convince climate change skeptics that humans are damaging the environment, according to a new study based on research at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Media Contact
In the News
The Washington Post
Forecast group predicts busiest hurricane season on record with 33 storms
A research team led by Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences is predicting the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season will produce the most named storms on record, fueled by exceptionally warm ocean waters and an expected shift from El Niño to La Niña.
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SciTechDaily
Satellite images capture extraordinary flooding in the United Arab Emirates
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences explains how three low-pressure systems formed a train of storms that battered the United Arab Emirates.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
My Climate Story: Philly students take science from abstract to personal
The “My Climate Story” project at the Environmental Humanities Department helps students and teachers learn about climate change’s impact in everyday backyards, with remarks from Bethany Wiggin. The idea is credited to María Villarreal, a College of Arts and Sciences second-year from Tampico, Mexico.
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Associated Press
Here’s why experts don’t think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai’s downpour
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that many people blaming cloud seeding for Dubai storms are climate change deniers trying to divert attention from what’s really happening.
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The New York Times
We don’t see what climate change is doing to us
In an Op-Ed, R. Jisung Park of the School of Social Policy & Practice says that public discourse around climate change overlooks the buildup of slow, subtle costs and their impact on human systems.
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Salon.com
“Record-shattering” heat wave in Antarctica — yep, climate change is the culprit
Michael Mann of the School of Arts & Sciences says that persistent summer weather extremes like heat waves are becoming more common as people continue to warm the planet with carbon pollution.
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