The process of revising the CMOS position statement on climate change:
In August 2019, the CMOS Council approved a revised position statement on climate change. The previous statement dated from 2014 and important developments in the science of climate change had occurred in the intervening years. In particular, the 2018 release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on 1.5 C
– By Kimberly Strong, CMOS President and Professor & Chair, Department of Physics, University of Toronto –
The news is awash with stories of ongoing, climate-related disasters from the tropics to the Arctic. On the date that I write this, the Amazon rainforest is seeing wildfires raging at a rate well beyond normal. With the dry season running until October, there is no immediate end in sight,
Message from the Outgoing President, Paul Kushner:
It’s hard to believe that my time as CMOS President is coming so quickly to a close and that these will be my final ‘Words’ to this great community. Thank you for entrusting me with this leadership role and for all the support I’ve received from CMOS’s staff, Executive, Council and volunteers. Your dedication makes leadership of this Society truly rewarding.
Formed in 1919, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) this year celebrates 100 years, and CMOS gets to be a part of it, as our congress coincides with their general assembly in Montreal in July.
Read on to get the lowdown on what’s what for CMOS members at this year’s IUGG general assembly:
Dr. Wayne Evans, Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science (CRESS) at York University from 1976 onwards, passed away in Seattle, Washington on April 27th, 2019. Although he never held a faculty position at York, during his time at Environment Canada and Trent University he maintained continued collaborations with CRESS, and contributed a great deal to its research activities.
– By Paul Kushner, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Toronto and CMOS President –
The warnings started in mid April: a deep and rapidly melting central/eastern Canadian snowpack and many days of intensive rain were set to bring unprecedented flooding to riverfront communities across Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Ottawa River water levels smashed previous records set during the flooding in spring of 2017.
– By Paul Kushner, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Toronto and CMOS President –
At the end of February I was grateful for the special opportunity to participate in the National Climate Change Science and Knowledge Priorities Workshop in Ottawa, a well-organized event hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The workshop brought together a wide variety of experts and stakeholders from the natural and social sciences; from First Peoples, federal, provincial and municipal organizations; and from NGOs and industry.
– By Paul Kushner, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Toronto and CMOS President –
To complete our review of the stewardship themes I identified at the time of the Halifax congress, it’s time to highlight environmental stewardship and sustainability, particularly in the area of anthropogenic climate change. The last two months have witnessed the increasingly urgent messages
Dr. Terry Gillespie, Professor Emeritus University of Guelph, passed away suddenly on December 2, 2018 following a brief illness. Terry was a well-known educator and researcher, who specialized in micrometeorology. He was a long-standing member of CMOS and was awarded the Dr. Andrew Thomson Prize in Applied Meteorology in 2006.
© 2017 Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
