Environment + Climate

By mid-century, even ordinary vessels will be able to navigate previously blocked parts of the Arctic Ocean, a potential boon for economic development but a threat to the environment.

The question raises the hackles of environmentalists and global-warming deniers alike — yet it’s one we should be asking sooner rather than later. That was the consensus of a UCLA climate scientist and environmental historian, and a New York Times environmental writer participating in a panel discussion put on by Zocalo in partnership with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the environmental humanities at UCLA.

Thanks to the generosity of philanthropist Morton La Kretz, the new field station in the Santa Monica Mountains will help UCLA researchers and colleagues conduct conservation practice in the field.

Thomas B. Smith will head an NSF-funded research project investigating the effects of climate change on biodiversity in the rainforests of Cameroon and Gabon.