Geography Spotlight



What Geographer's Are Doing About Climate Change:


[Geographer's Name]

This is where the bibliography and accomplishments of the geographer goes. For example:  "Susanne Moser, Ph.D., is Director and Principal Researcher of Susanne Moser Research & Consulting in Santa Cruz, California. She is also a Social Science Research Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University and a Research Associate at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Institute for Marine Sciences. Previously, she served as a Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado; served as staff scientist for climate change at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and at the Heinz Center in Washington, DC.

Susi's work focuses on adaptation to climate change, vulnerability, resilience, climate change communication, social change, decision support and the interaction between scientists, policy-makers and the public. She is a geographer by training (Ph.D. 1997, Clark University) with an interests in how social science can inform society's responses to this global challenge. She has worked in coastal areas, urban and rural communities, with forest-reliant communities, and on human health issues. Susi contributed to Working Group II of the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, served as Review Editor on the IPCC’s Special Report on “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation,” and is currently a contributing author to the IPCC's Fifth Assessment." 





Geographic Profile: Climate Change On The Ground

[Description of a Geography Case Study]

In this section, a geographic case study of climate change could be profiled. For example:  "The majority of the Arctic is composed of the Arctic Ocean which was formed when the Eurasian Plate moved toward the Pacific Plate thousands of years ago. Although this ocean makes up the majority of the Arctic region, it is the world's smallest ocean. It reaches depths of 3,200 feet (969 m) and is connected to the Atlantic and the Pacific via several straits and seasonal waterways such as the Northwest Passage (between the U.S. and Canada) and the Northern Sea Route (between Norway and Russia). Since the majority of the Arctic is the Arctic Ocean along with straits and bays, much of the Arctic region is composed of a drifting ice pack which can be up to nine feet (three meters) thick during winter. In the summer, this ice pack is replaced mainly by open water that is often dotted with icebergs that formed when ice broke from land glaciers and/or chunks of ice that have broken away from the ice pack.

The Arctic region's climate is very cold and harsh for most of the year due to the Earth's axial tilt. Because of this, the region never receives direct sunlight, but instead gets rays indirectly and thus gets less solar radiation. In the winter, the Arctic region has 24 hours of darkness because the high latitudes such as the Arctic are turned away from the sun at this time of year. By contrast in the summer, the region receives 24 hours of sunlight because the Earth is tilted toward the sun. However because the sun's rays are not direct, summers are also mild to cool in most parts of the Arctic. Because the Arctic is covered with snow and ice for much of the year, it also has high albedo or reflectivity and thus reflects solar radiation back into space. Temperatures are also milder in the Arctic than in Antarctica because the presence of the Arctic Ocean helps moderate them.(Text pulled from Wikipedia- DO NOT REPRINT)