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Scientists urge preparation for catastrophic climate change

Tim Kohler.
Kohler

With the rapid, unprecedented pace of climate change, it is time to start seriously considering the worst-case scenarios, warns Washington State University archaeologist Tim Kohler.

Kohler, an emeritus WSU professor of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology, is part of an international team of climate experts that argue that although unlikely, climate change catastrophes, including human extinction, should be more heavily considered by scientists.

He and his collaborators discuss how climate change could drive mass extinction events and propose a research agenda to investigate bad- to worst-case scenarios in a new commentary article published Aug. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tim Kohler
“It’s a topic that is too scary for most people to contemplate but that needs to change because the risks we face are very real,” said Kohler, who holds the distinction of being the first archaeologist to contribute to an IPCC report as a lead author. “We are entering a period where the climate dynamics are going to be completely outside the norm of what we have experienced in the last 12,000 years.”

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WSU Insider

Newhouse’s primary success rare among GOP impeachment voters

The 4th Congressional District in Washington state is a land of snow-capped volcanic peaks and lush irrigated orchards that produce most of the nation’s apples. It’s also home to one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and then won his next election.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year, and is one of only two to beat back GOP challengers this year.

Newhouse was the leading vote-getter in the race for his seat in the Aug. 2 Washington primary election, despite withering criticism from Trump and a Trump-backed challenger, Loren Culp. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif. – who like Newhouse ran in a top-two open primary – also prevailed two months ago.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

“Newhouse had a lot more credibility in the agriculture community,” Cornell Clayton, head of the Thomas S. Foley Institute at Washington State University, said this week. “And Culp just doesn’t. I think that did him in.”

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MSN
Kansas City Star

WSU faculty named to Washington State Academy of Sciences

The Washington State Academy of Sciences announced six faculty from Washington State University will be new members. Membership in WSAS recognizes their scientific and technical contributions to the state of Washington and the nation.

The new members will be formally inducted at the 15th Annual Members Meeting on Sept. 15.

“It’s wonderful to see the leadership and excellence of our faculty honored by the Washington State Academy of Sciences,” said WSU System President Kirk Schulz. “We are proud to have WSU scientists and engineers advancing the Academy’s mission to inform public policy throughout the state of Washington.”

Stephen Bollens.
Bollens

The new WSU members of the Academy include Stephen Bollens, professor in the School of the Environment and School of Biological Sciences and director of Meyer’s Point Environmental Field Station, who is recognized for his research on salt and freshwater aquatic systems that is both timely and important to understanding the impact of global climate change and rising sea levels on estuarine systems and biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest, and for a proven willingness to engage and serve institutions and the public.

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WSU Insider

Sen. Murray seeks 6th term at new inflection point for women

Patty Murray was first elected to the U.S. Senate from Washington state in 1992 during the “Year of the Woman,” motivated to run for higher office in part by the contentious Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

At that time, Murray was the self-professed “Mom in Tennis Shoes,” advocating for working families and outraged by the way an all-male Senate committee questioned Anita Hill when she said Thomas had sexually harassed her.

Now Murray, 71, is one of the Senate’s most powerful members and seeking a sixth term at another inflection point for women following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Murray’s campaign has spent more than $1 million to run television ads since June blasting her Republican rival Tiffany Smiley for supporting Roe v. Wade’s reversal.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Cornell W. Clayton, a political scientist and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Washington State University, said Murray remains the favorite to win in November but faces challenges.

“In particular she has to worry about Biden´s negative approval ratings as a drag and the economy and inflation putting the electorate in a pretty sour mood,” Clayton said.

Smiley´s strategy appears to be focusing less on policy and more on turning the race into a referendum on Democrats, he said.

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Daily Mail

A new scientific method transcends the need for eyes in detecting the presence of species.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This philosophical musing on perception and reality is often vaguely attributed to Irish philosopher George Berkeley, the San Francisco, California, Bay Area city’s namesake, whose own philosophy boiled down to, “To be is to be perceived.”

For much of the discipline’s history, ecological researchers studying the presence of endangered species in underwater habitats were forced to operate under a similar axiom.

If, for instance, after a day of trudging through ponds and combing the water with dip nets, Brian Woodward, an ecological researcher at the Santa Lucia Conservancy in Carmel Valley, was unable to perceive with his own eyes the presence of a California tiger salamander or its larvae, he would have no physical evidence of its existence. The rules of detective work 101.

Caren Goldberg.
Goldberg

Earlier this spring, with the help of a grant and a partnership with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Woodward and a team of researchers set out to monitor the presence of the tiger salamander and the similarly endangered California red-legged frog on the Santa Lucia Preserve. Instead of sweeping the ponds with a net and manually counting the adults and larvae they found, the team bagged up samples of pond water and shipped them to Caren Goldberg’s laboratory at Washington State University for analysis. The results, which Woodward expects to receive by September, will tell which ponds are hosting the endangered species.

The use of eDNA does for ecology what forensic labs did for crime scene investigators.

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Monterey County Weekly