From Orlando Business Journal:

Florida’s treasury investment managers will be required to detail their abilities to assess climate risk, under a directive from Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer.

Florida is the first state treasury in the United States to require investment fund managers to make such disclosures, according to a release from Sink’s office.

Under the new directive, investment managers will be required to report on climate risk as part of their semi-annual reviews. Some managers have begun planning for the potential impacts of climate risk in their portfolios, while others have more work to do and need guidance on how to assess potential climate-related financial risks when making investment decisions, the release says.

The goal is to safeguard tax dollars from the risks posed by climate change and to encourage companies to capture opportunities related to the changing climate, says Sink, who oversees the state Department of Financial Services, the state’s $20 billion in Treasury funds and serves on the board of the Florida pension fund, which has $140 billion in assets.

Sink also said she is exploring the creation of a clean energy fund in Florida. Eighteen other states have created similar funds, which invest in renewable clean energy resources, such as solar, wind and biomass, the release said.

Additionally, Sink appointed Margaret Lowman, director of environmental initiatives at New College of Florida in Sarasota, as her science adviser on matters related to climate change.

Another article: State CFO details climate change initiatives

Quote from Dr. Lowman:

“I am honored to contribute my 30 years’ experience in professional science to serve as Science Advisor for Alex Sink, our state Chief Financial Officer. Florida – now more than ever – needs both science and economics at the table to map Florida’s future. As we face challenges such as climate change, water conservation, and obtaining clean energy, I hope that the integration of science, economics and policy will insure a healthy and prosperous Florida for our children.” [Meg Lowman, 13 Nov 2007]

A conversation with Dr. Meg Lowman regarding climate change is in the Fall 2007 issue of Bay Soundings.

You can read the PDF of the article here:
Climate Change & Florida’s Future - A conversation with Dr. Meg Lowman

From Tampabay.com:

MYAKKA RIVER STATE PARK - Standing 80 feet above the subtropical forest floor, the swamps and hardwood hammocks don’t look quite so hot and buggy. Still sweating from the short hike and climb, two kids in tow, the gentle breeze makes me forget it’s the dead of summer. But that’s the beauty of the Myakka Canopy Walkway. Even a short visit will leave you with an elevated perspective.

Read the full article 

From Newswise Science News:

Now ecological scientists—well positioned because of their field of study—are stepping up to do their part in getting children back to nature. The Symposium “No child left indoors: Ecologists linking young people with nature” will be held during the joint meeting of ESA and the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Read the full article

An interview with canopy expert Dr. Meg Lowman:
Canopy research is key to understanding rainforests

Interview

From ScienceCareers.org:

The decision to mesh motherhood with a nascent career as an environmental biologist wasn’t one that Margaret Dalzwell Lowman (AKA Canopy Meg) had the luxury of choosing. Rather, it was a lifestyle born out of necessity.

Full Article

Sent by the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW · Washington DC 20460 · 202-564-4355

Contact: Suzanne Ackerman, (202) 564-4355 / ackerman.suzanne@epa.gov

Everyone has a role in protecting our environment, including members of Generation Y. EPA is tapping into their innovation and creativity in finding solutions to environmental challenges through the agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet competition. The agency plans to award up to $1.25 million in grants that enable teams of college students to research, develop and design scientific and technical solutions to sustainability challenges that protect the environment while achieving continued economic prosperity.
EPA will award as many as 50 grants up to $10,000 each to student teams. The money will be used to research and develop sustainable solutions during the 2007-08 academic year. In spring 2008, the teams will be invited to bring their designs to Washington, D.C. to compete for EPA’s P3 Award, which includes an additional award worth up to $75,000 to further develop and implement the project in the field. The competition will be judged by the National Academy of Engineering for design innovation and technical merit along with relevant social, economic and environmental considerations that are the keys to sustainable designs.
The P3 competition is open to teams of students attending colleges, universities and other post-secondary educational institutions. Interdisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged, including representatives from multiple engineering departments and/or departments of chemistry, architecture, industrial design, economics, policy, social sciences, business, communication, etc.
The grants will be awarded for research related to the P3 (People, Prosperity, and the Planet) sustainability competition, a national student design competition launched in 2004.
Proposals must reach EPA by December 21, 2006.

Herald Tribune Article by Kazuaki Nagata

New College of Florida students and Sarasota County residents got to explore Red Bug Slough on Sept. 2 as part of a special guided tour hosted by the college.

Full Article

Adina Paytan Drinking with a Lobster!

Biography The major focus of Dr. Paytan’s research is understanding marine biogeochemical cycles in the present and the past. Dr. Paytan was born and raised in Israel and after a mandatory military service of two years went traveling to India and Nepal and hiking the Himalayas for another two years. She got her B.Sc. double major in Biology and Geology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Realizing how important science education is to the well-being of our planet I pursued a M.S. degree in science education at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Dr Paytan developed a curriculum in field geology for high school students, which has been implemented successfully and then got another masters degree, this time in oceanography, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her thesis was on oxygen isotope exchange between water and phosphate via biological cycling. In 1989 she moved (with Ron) to San Diego to take part in the Ph.D. Graduate program at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Her thesis was on marine barite as a recorder of oceanic chemistry, productivity and circulation. After 6 years she graduated with a degree and a daughter (Tali) and stayed in San Diego (UCSD) for a post doc, this time producing a high resolution sea water S isotope curve for the past 120 Ma. In the summer of 1999 Dr. Paytan moved to Stanford (as part of the new Ocean Program and the Environmental Science, Engineering and Policy Program) and since then is working as an assistant professor in oceanography at the department of Geological and Environmental Sciences.

Research Interests: Dr. Paytan’s principal research interests lie in the fields of paleoceanography, chemical oceanography and marine biogeochemistry. The goal of her research is to use the chemical and isotopic record enclosed in sea water and marine sediments to study present and past biogeochemical processes. This research spans a wide range of temporal (seasons to millions of years) and spatial (molecular to global) scales. An over-arching goal of this research is to link changing ocean composition to global changes in climate and tectonics. In addition Dr. Paytan is interested in natural and anthropogenically induced perturbation that effect biogeochemical processes in the ocean such as methane emission from wetlands, trace metal recycling in sediments, aerosol impact on marine biota and coastal water pollution. Biography Dr. Paytan focuses her work on the causes and consequences of climate change and coastal pollution. Trained as an oceanographer she uses the chemical signatures recorded in seawater, sediments, and living organisms to understand how the Earth System responds to natural and human induced climate and environmental changes over seasons to millions of years time scales. Dr. Paytan is the author of over 60 scientific publications, including review articles on barite and on the P cycle. She has received numerous awards including the AGU – Oceanography Early Career Award, NSF Early CAREER Award and the NASA New Investigator Award. She is currently and assistant professor in the department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.

The Elmira Star-Gazette takes a look at the second Meg Lowman Treetop Camp at Tanglewood Nature Center:

A close look at nature was a way 12 girls could appreciate the opportunities around them as they attended the second Meg Lowman Treetop Camp at Tanglewood Nature Center and Museum this week.

The camp ended Friday afternoon with a glass-working session, a look at photographs the campers took earlier in the day and a gigantic water balloon fight.

Full Article