Health/Climate/Cities

By 2030, Earth’s climate is expected to resemble that of the mid-Pliocene, going back more than 3 million years in geologic time. Without reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions, our climates by 2150 could compare to the warm and mostly ice-free Eocene, an epoch that characterized the globe 50 million years ago.

As part of UW–Madison’s UniverCity Year partnership with Green County, a team from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s senior capstone design course is proposing a renewable energy system to help offset Juda School’s energy expenses by 25 percent.

A new study sheds light on the possible mental health implications of climate change. GHI Director Jonathan Patz also pointed to separate research showing how students living in hotter temperatures due to not having air conditioning during a heat wave performed more poorly on cognitive tests compared with their peers who lived in air-conditioned spaces during a heat wave.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have developed an accessible, online, interactive map of more than 70 million Zip+4 zip codes so that users can find data on socio-economic factors at the neighborhood level.

The subjects of the eight projects selected for grants from the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment are varied but all will help the university contribute knowledge and resources across the state.