Group items tagged

Key Findings Current Coastal Management Challenges Current coastal management challenges are worsening. Top management challenges will be exacerbated by climate change. Current management challenges make adaptation planning and decision-making difficult. Climate Change Concerns, Knowledge, and Actions Attitudes and knowledge about climate change are strongly supportive of adaptation action. Attention to adaptation has increased markedly over the past five years. Adaptation planning and implementation is still in the very early stages. There is limited familiarity with innovative adaptation approaches. Information, Technical Assistance, and Training Needs Organizational missions, job responsibilities, and legal requirements shape common information use. Ease of access to information is the overriding determinant of information use. Specific information needs differ by professional group. Critical opportunities exist to meet coastal professionals' information, technical assistance, and training needs Survey Background Decision-makers in California's (CA) coastal counties recognize that climate change will impact their communities and coastline. Yet, coastal CA communities are at different stages in developing and/or implementing climate change adaptation plans. During the Summer of 2012, USC Sea Grant, in partnership with 14 other CA-based organizations (listed below), launched a survey to understand the needs and barriers coastal communities have in planning for climate change in order to develop appropriate trainings and technical assistance for communities and determine the best way to link communities to resources and tools already available. Survey Partners USC Sea Grant California Sea Grant Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University California Nevada Applications Program (CNAP) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego through the NOAA Regional Integrat

goes with: The pH Factor (http://www.miamisci.org/ph/) and Alien Juice Bar (http://sv.berkeley.edu/showcase/flash/juicebar.html)

"Scientific Workforce NSF Touts Family-Friendly Policies as Boon to Women 1. Jeffrey Mervis Young women are forever asking Meg Urry, an astrophysicist at Yale University, if it's possible "to have a successful scientific career and a family." A tenured professor with both, Urry tells them "yes." Perhaps more telling, however, is that the issue doesn't seem to interest half of her students. "I've never been asked that question by a man," she says. This week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) rolled out a set of family-friendly policies that it hopes will reduce the number of young women who jettison scientific careers because of responsibilities outside the lab. "Too many women give up because of conflicts between their desire to start a family and their desire to ramp up their careers," says John Holdren, the president's science adviser and head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It was a rare moment in the spotlight for the low-profile basic research agency: First Lady Michelle Obama announced the policies at a White House ceremony touting the importance of women to the nation's economic recovery and, in particular, the need to improve the proportion of women in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce. Figure View larger version: * In this page * In a new window Lending a hand. First Lady Michelle Obama applauds the work of young women in science at a White House event. "CREDIT: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION" The new policies will allow both male and female grant recipients to defer an award for up to 1 year or receive a no-cost extension of an existing grant. NSF also hopes to increase its use of "virtual reviews" of grant proposals so that scientists don't need to travel as often to the agency's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters. The only change with any price tag attached is a new program of supplemental awards to investigators going on family leave, allowing them to hi