News

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C. The IPCC, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, explores the detrimental impacts of climate change on the world, such as food shortages, increase in wildfires and a mass die-off of coral reefs, which could take place as soon as 2040.

Join us October 3rd, 2018 at 11:00am (EV3-4412) for a seminar with Dr. Stephen Déry from the University of Nothern British Columbia. 

Title: Changing Northern Hemisphere snow conditions and their impacts to the snow hydrology of the Western Cordillera’s rivers 

Speaker: Stephen J. Déry​

Of all extreme weather events in Canada, flooding is currently the costliest, causing millions of dollars in property damage. Nonetheless, the impact of basement flooding on the mental health and lost time from work of impacted homeowners has been only superficially explored, until now.

Studies led by the University of Waterloo, with a group of multinational researchers, have identified that climate change is threatening the future of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Temperatures are rising with the increase of global green house gas emissions, affecting the ability to reliably host the winter games across the globe. The average February daytime  temperature of the Olympic Winter Games locations is steadily increasing - from 0.48C in the 1920–1950s, to 3.18C in the 1960–1990s, to 7.88C in games held in the twenty-first century - intensifying the need for weather risk management strategies.

This week, political leaders from all over the world, including new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will arrive in Paris to negotiate a plan to fight global climate change. The University of Waterloo is sending a handful of students to be on the ground in the French capital as the historic agreement unfolds around them.

UW Students at UN Climate Negotiations

Two members of UW's Climate Students group are currently in Lima, Peru for the 20th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commonly referred to as "COP20".