UCLA CEE faculty, UC colleagues urge President-Elect to continue climate protections

Dec 19, 2016

By UCLA Samueli Newsroom

UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty members and UC colleagues penned a letter to President-Elect Donald Trump, urging him to continue sensible measures to address climate change, considering it poses critical threats to the nation’s infrastructure.

The effort was spearheaded by Jennifer A. Jay, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, along with Jonathan P. Stewart, professor and chair of the UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. In total, the letter included 78 signatories, all of whom are faculty members in environmental engineering, civil engineering or related disciplines, from UCLA and six other UC campuses. Jayathi Murthy, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of UCLA Engineering, also co-signed the letter.

A selection from the letter: “Our academic disciplines vary widely, but we share a common aim to ensure that the infrastructure supporting our society is safe, efficient, and dependable and that all citizens have access to a healthy environment. Climate change is a current and rising threat to these goals that requires mitigation for the sake of the safety and security of the citizens of the United States.”

The letter, dated Dec. 15, 2016 is available at the website of the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors. The letter noted several threats that already face the United State and the globe because of climate change, and that the U.S. must be a leader in addressing this global challenge. The letter also urged the president-elect to continue policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide greenhouse gases.

In a separate effort, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block joined leaders at more than 170 colleges and universities urging the president-elect to support science-based solutions that address climate change.

Image: 2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to an analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001. http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20160120/
Image credit: NSA/GSFC/Scientific Visualization Studio

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