If you’ve been following along, you can see the Caribbean has a very special place in my heart. Both sides of my family are from the island of Cuba, and the surrounding archipelago has similar cultural – and environmental – ties to each other. My larger research focuses on deforestation in Haiti and the Dominican … Continue reading To Cool & To Fight: Mitigation and Resilience Building in the Dominican Republic

While at the negotiation, I was able to attend a number of side events that brought together researchers, activists, and delegates to discuss actions and reactions to issues within the COP. One of my suggestions within my white paper was on agroforestry and agroecology, as a form of both mitigation and adaptation to climate change. … Continue reading Political Mobilization & Agroecology: Jesús Vazquez and La Vía Campesina

As the negotiation was coming to a close (for us, since we were only there for the first week), one particular side event had piqued the interest of observers like me – as well as a few journalists and other delegates at the COP. The event I went to was only the first week of … Continue reading Voices of the LDC Work Group: Masked Tension & Frustration at the COP

Adaptation is the name of the game for this year’s conference, especially as the negotiation deals with the scary reality that we will not be staying below our proposed temperature limit. Countries most vulnerable to climate change are oftentimes the same nations dealing with the effects head-on: island nations facing rising sea levels; coastal communities … Continue reading Adaptation Fund Updates!

Now that we know possible sources of funding for projects related to both community and ecosystem-based adaptation, it then falls on the delegates to make it happen back home. I want to highlight some other hurdles that may be involved in this process that have nothing to do with climate change or with financing, but … Continue reading Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer for Climate Change Resilience

Now that there is some common ground on the different adaptation strategies available, let’s delve a little more into how these projects go from dreams to reality. Community-based adaptation projects were one of the many hot-button topics at the negotiation this year. Side events and negotiations became heated when discussing how to actually fund them. … Continue reading Funding for Community-Based Adaptation: To whom do Parties turn?

Remember when I said I love the intersection of climate change and the arts? That definitely still stands, and was heightened by the exhibit I saw at Agnes Scott this morning. The trip to the actual museum was done in a bit of a frenzy; a job interview, a WaterHub tour, the impending doom of projects … Continue reading Weatherwise/Otherwise: Didn’t Even Know I Needed This!

Adaptation, resilience, capacity-building… these are all words that have been thrown around in the past few years that, for many, have created more confusion about climate change. Before talking into more detail about the Adaptation Fund, community based-adaptation, and how adaptation initiatives stand as of COP 23, let’s throw down some basic definitions: Adaptation, noun /adapˈtāSH(ə)n/: … Continue reading Word(s) to the Wise: Definitions Moving Forward

It was apt to close off this year’s seminar series with Dr. Gunderson, not only chair of the Environmental Sciences department but also most students’ professor for the introductory course all Environmental Sciences majors must take before graduation. Classic to Dr. Gunderson’s interests in resilience-building and in ecology, he spoke to the class of ENVS … Continue reading A Note on Communicating Climate Change: questioning the Professoriate as the most effective medium

It was a fun research weekend in Austin with friends and mentors. The South Eastern Regional Conference brings together students involved in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, a program created to prime students to apply graduate school. Specifically, Mellon Mays seeks to help underrepresented minorities find their way to get their PhD, in order to … Continue reading Personal Piece: Presenting at the Southeastern Regional Conference