We’re just over a week into the new year and we’ve already seen extensive wildfires in Australia and massive flooding in Indonesia, both of which have claimed multiple lives. These incidents — extreme weather events intensified by climate change — are officially the new normal, and experts are worried.

"The overall challenge is that cities, in particular, are experiencing and will experience an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events,” said Arizona State University Regents Professor Nancy Grimm. “So, fires, heat waves, flooding, coastal flooding, droughts and so forth — most of these are weather-related events, and whether or not you can attribute any single one of them to climate change, we’re going to see more of them and they are going to be more severe.”

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Ever since the magical experience of riding on a turtle while on a snorkeling tour at 12 years old, Jesse Senko has been obsessed with sea turtles. It’s an obsession that continues to fuel him as he works as a marine biologist and conservation scientist at Arizona State University to save the creatures.

“Fishing gear is the greatest threat to sea turtles worldwide,” Senko said. “Sea turtles are vital for the health of the world’s oceans. They perform fundamental roles in ocean ecosystems, many of which are not fulfilled by other species. And humans need healthy oceans to survive and thrive.”

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The Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University will award $100,000 to an interdisciplinary team working on an innovative approach to conservation and landscape connectivity. This inaugural Conservation Impact Prize will fund a collaborative project that addresses a landscape-scale conservation challenge on the North American continent. The project must provide measurable benefits to both the habitat and the community.

Non-traditional applicants and ideas are encouraged. Potential applicants must register by Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 5 PM Mountain. Applications are due no later than Thursday, April 16, 2020, at 5 PM Mountain. More information on the grant and how to apply for the Connectivity Challenge prize, plus a press release.

Arizona State University Department of English President’s Professor Joni Adamson, an internationally renowned professor in environmental humanities and director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, has helped transform the field of environmental humanities — not only at ASU — but globally.

Adamson and Christopher Jones, an associate professor of history in ASU’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, were part of a team of 23 authors from 10 countries to publish new research in the journal Environmental Humanities. The article, titled “Teaching the Environmental Humanities: International Perspectives and Practices,” delves into how environmental humanities courses and programs are rapidly expanding globally, and how universities should teach the interdisciplinary field.

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The Food Tank 2020 Summit begins with 22 speakers, mostly enrolled tribal members or Native Hawaiians. Mariah Gladstone, the founder of Indigikitchen, known for her 'recipes for resistance,' will speak. The reception following the talks will feature Native American cuisine tastings.

The event is ticketed but free of charge for faculty and students. The event will have a staffed table for students to sign-in, and attendees will be reported to faculty. Students can also be assigned a short-answer response to be used for extra credit. Please register and use the code 'ASU' to get the $15 ticket fee waived. Ollie the Trolley will shuttle students between Tempe campus and SkySong.

Food Tank 2020 is a collaboration of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, the University of Hawai'i West O'ahu Sustainable Community Food Systems Program and Food Tank.

A very important change will appear in the National Science Foundation’s 2020 Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). Although PIs need not make this change until a date yet-to-be-announced, the NSF recommends making the following change immediately.

To create compliant biosketch and current & pending documents, researchers now must use Science Networks Curriculum Vitae. SciENcv compiles information from existing systems, including ORCiD, to create the professional profile needed for a federal grant application or annual report. Researchers also can create these documents from scratch; they will have complete control over the data.

NSF will release the 2020 PAPPG in January or February. Any changes outlined in a new PAPPG take effect approximately 90 days after its release.

Rana El Chemaitelly is a 2019 finalist in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge and a pioneer in the education industry. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse elaborates on how Rana’s company The Little Engineer has supports United Nations sustainable development goals.

There are various gaps in education systems all around the world, and Rana El Chemaitelly is actively changing that. El Chemaitelly is the founder of The Little Engineer, a Beirut-based educational institution that provides academic solutions to the gaps that are found between theory, practice and implementation in classrooms.

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Irma Daushvili is a 2019 finalist in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge from Georgia and a pioneer in the renovation and home improvement industry. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse elaborates on how Irma is using her company DIO to provide their ecologically clean products to improve homes and businesses in Georgia.

Irma Daushvili is the general director of DIO, a company that is based out of Georgia and is a provider of home improvement products. At DIO, a fair and inclusive work space is important to their vision and the company’s future. Just within the last year they have increased their percentage of women in management by over 10%.

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She runs two organizations from home, created a charity focused on helping veterans with PTSD and holds community events to raise awareness. She also helps personal brands and businesses benefit from innovative solutions. Oh, and did we mention she's a mother of two?

Meet Sha'kiya Morris, a junior at Arizona State University studying sustainability online. "To me, sustainability means an opportunity to practice mindfulness," Morris said. "I believe that with collaboration, transparency, and an openness to understanding, we can take our species to another level. But to evolve, we must first become involved."

In the following Q&A, we discuss her life, the reasons she created her organizations and why she decided to study sustainability at ASU.

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Brynn Foster is a 2019 finalist in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge from Hawaii, USA and a transformative pioneer in the agriculture industry. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse elaborates on how Brynn is breaking barriers in the male-dominated world of agriculture through innovation and community.

Brynn Foster is the founder of Voyaging Foodsv a Hawaii-based artisan miller and bakehouse that produces flour from Hawaiian canoe plants. For over a decade, they have been committed to producing nutritional, delicious and allergy-conscious foods that preserve and honor Hawaiian heritage. The mission Foster has established at Voyaging Foods is to revive these Hawaiian-grown crops and reclaim Hawaiian food sovereignty while building a thriving canoe-plant flour industry. Voyaging Foods ultimate goal is to help move the Hawaiian Islands towards food security.

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The Second International Conference on Climate Change is taking place April 1–3, 2020. This conference aims to share experiences on vulnerability issues; adaptation strategies in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, water resources and fishing; and mitigation issues. More specifically, the conference is a way to:

1. Take stock of the achievements and needs in terms of research and extension in the field of climate and its impacts on the agricultural sector;

2. Create a framework for exchanges between the various actors in the field of climate and its impacts.

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Climate change is a large source of uncertainty for infrastructure managers. It is easy to feel immobilized by future uncertainty, however, that does not have to be the case. In this podcast, the hosts interview a city practitioner, social scientist, and climate modeller to understand how infrastructure managers integrate climate modelling data into the decision process.

Associated Links/Websites:

Referenced:

• SETS Infrastructure podcast epispde: https://www.buzzsprout.com/125676/1084280-sets-infrastructure

Participants:

• Geneva Gray: @kawaiiness
• Alysha Helmrich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyshahelmrich/
• Rui Li: www.linkedin.com/in/li-rui-11ASU
• Dr. Marissa Matsler: @oh_the_urbanity
• Dr. Ken Kunkel: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6667-7047
• Portland Water Bureau: @portlandwater

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or Buzzsprout.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

On Saturday, January 18, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes staff, faculty and volunteers will participate in the OdySea Aquarium Conservation Expo.

This free event is open to the public. It includes fun and family friendly conservation-oriented activities for people of all ages. The expo takes place in the courtyard of the aquarium.

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In recognition of her distinguished and continued achievement in research, co-founder and director of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), Nancy Grimm was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019, and will be inducted into the Academy in April 2020.  This mark of excellence in science is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. This fall, she also was honored by Arizona State University, being named Regents Professor.

Grimm’s research interests include the interaction of climate variation and change, human activities, and ecosystems. Her long-term stream research focuses on how variability in the hydrologic regime affects the structure and processes of desert streams, especially wetland plant distribution, metabolism, nitrogen cycling, and hyporheic processes. Her related research in cities addresses how stormwater infrastructure affects water and material movement across an urban landscape. As the founding director of the interdisciplinary Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER program, she brought together earth, life, and social scientists to develop new frameworks for understanding urban social-ecological-technological systems (SETS). For UREx SRN, the SETS framing is central.

Congratulations to Nancy!

School of Sustainability PhD graduate, Melissa Guardaro has made an impact on heat action planning in Phoenix, Arizona. As part of the Nature’s Cooling System Project, Guardaro strove to address social and geographical equity concerns related to heat mitigation and adaptation strategies in under-served areas. She partnered with local groups including the Nature Conservancy, community based organizations, city officials, and the public health department to develop heat action plans for three low-income communities: Edison-Eastlake Community, Mesa Care Neighborhood, and Lindo Park-Roesley Park Neighborhood.

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The Theodore J. Cohn Research Fund was founded primarily to fund research projects in Orthoptera and the other nine orders of Polyneoptera (Blattodea, Dermaptera, Embioptera, Grylloblattodea, Mantodea, Mantophasmatodea, Phasmatodea, Plecoptera and Zoraptera) by those new to research, often as part of a master's degree or PhD, though postdoctorates may also be funded.

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Anne Butterly is a finalist in the 2019 WE Empower UN SDG Challenge. Her work in the reduction of waste through the innovative technology of Easydry is breaking barriers in multiple industries. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse speaks to Anne about her goals within her company and her community.

 Anne Butterly is the founder and CEO of Easydry, a toweling system based out of Ireland. Easydry products are a recyclable and biodegradable alternative to cotton towels and can be used anywhere from the salon to the gym. Easydry focuses on Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation through reducing the consumption of fresh water globally (in comparison to cotton production) through its water-efficient fibre production, and then by eliminating the need to constantly wash cotton towels which saves 5 liters of water per towel.

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Ana Cecilia Flores is a 2019 finalist in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge and a pioneer in the tech industry. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse elaborates on how innovation has empowered Flores’s company, Webee, to tackle some of the toughest sustainability problems.

Ana Cecilia Flores is the co-founder of Webee, an innovative Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence company. Webee supports sustainable development goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure through the use of intuitive technology to combat some of our world’s most complicated issues such as food waste and air quality. At Webee, they recognize that technology can balance economic, social and environmental growth in order to move towards a sustainable future.

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Agnieszka Bilinska is a 2019 finalist in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge from Poland and a pioneer in the health and wellness industry. WE Empower Intern Jacqueline Blisse elaborates on how Agnieszka is using education to help leaders in business grow their communication skills, manage their stress, and better their mental health.

Agnieszka Bilinska is the Chief Executive Officer of Trusted Communication, a company that provides personal development programs for leaders in business. The various programs offered encompass mental health, diversity, building communication skills and managing stress.

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Two annual fellowships were established by ASU in 2019 to support scholars in exploring the diverse history of the West, its intersections with race and violence, and American Indian history.