Stephanie Pfirman

• Arizona State University

In the context of a rapidly-warming world, a global pandemic, systemic racism, and environmental racism, as science researchers and educators, we recognize an urgent need for comprehensive sustainability and environmental justice education. We also recognize the special role that higher education can and should play in the creation of a sustainable...

Since 1996, Columbia University and Barnard College have required that undergraduate environmental majors take “Earth’s Environmental Systems: Climate.” The class is co-taught by 2–3 professors and is offered by different teams in fall and spring semesters. As one of the longest, continuously running, required classes on climate in the world, traci...

This Special Issue “Shaping Tomorrow’s Arctic” explores the past, present and future of Arctic sustainability [...]

Discussion of the updated Education and Climate position statements from the American Geophysical Union (AGU); the authors are a subset of the committee who worked on the statements for AGU. https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-may-june-2022/american-geophysical-union

In this perspective on the future of the Arctic, we explore actions taken to mitigate warming and adapt to change since the Paris agreement on the temperature threshold that should not be exceeded in order to avoid dangerous interference with the climate system. Although 5 years may seem too short a time for implementation of major interventions, i...

Sea ice will persist longer in the Last Ice Area (LIA), north of Canada and Greenland, than elsewhere in the Arctic. We combine earth system model ensembles with a sea‐ice tracking utility (SITU) to explore sources of sea ice (the “ice shed”) to the LIA under two scenarios: continued high warming (HW) rates and low warming (LW) rates (mean global w...

Climate change is a highly complex social-ecological problem characterized by system-type dynamics that are important to communicate in a variety of settings, ranging from formal education to decision makers to informal education of the general public. Educational games are one approach that may enhance systems thinking skills. This study used a ra...

This first analysis of aggregated data from the Kahoot! game-based player response system demonstrates that it can provide assessments of overall US student polar knowledge and identifies differences in polar knowledge across several states. A kahoot online quiz on polar topics recorded over 25,000 United States teacher-hosted classroom players (mo...

As the impacts of climate change grow, we need better ways to raise awareness and motivate action. Here we assess the effectiveness of an Arctic climate change card game in comparison with the more conventional approach of reading an illustrated article. In-person assessments with control/reading and treatment/game groups (N = 41), were followed fo...

The Arctic is undergoing a rapid transition toward a seasonal ice regime, with widespread implications for the polar ecosystem, human activities, as well as the global climate. Here we focus on how the changing ice cover impacts transborder exchange of sea ice between the exclusive economic zones of the Arctic states. We use the Sea Ice Tracking Ut...

Academic enterprises seeking to support society’s efforts to achieve global sustainability need to change their legacy reward systems. We need new structures to foster knowledge that is deeply integrated across disciplines and co-produced with non-academic stakeholders.

- Seventy-three percent of respondents on a nationwide survey say they trust science agencies such as NASA for information about climate change. - The second most-trusted source of information about climate change is family and friends (37%). - Despite political divisions, science agencies such as NASA are trusted by substantial majorities within e...

The Polar, Environment, and Science (POLES) survey, carried out in two stages in August and November–December of 2016, is the most recent nationwide project to assess Arctic knowledge. The two-stage design allowed testing for differences before and after the U.S. election, but those turned out to be minor. Another unique aspect of this survey was i...

The Polar, Environment, and Science (POLES) survey, carried out in two stages in August and November–December of 2016, is the most recent nationwide project to assess Arctic knowledge. The two-stage design allowed testing for differences before and after the U.S. election, but those turned out to be minor. Another unique aspect of this survey was i...

The Polar, Environment, and Science (POLES) survey, carried out in two stages in August and November–December of 2016, is the most recent nationwide project to assess Arctic knowledge. The two-stage design allowed testing for differences before and after the U.S. election, but those turned out to be minor. Another unique aspect of this survey was i...

The changing Arctic sea‐ice cover is likely to impact the trans‐border exchange of sea ice between the exclusive economic zones ( EEZs ) of the Arctic nations, affecting the risk of ice‐rafted contamination. We apply the Lagrangian Ice Tracking System ( LITS ) to identify sea‐ice formation events and track sea ice to its melt locations. Most ice (5...

The Polar, Environment, and Science (POLES) survey, carried out in two stages in August and November–December of 2016, is the most recent nationwide project to assess Arctic knowledge. The two-stage design allowed testing for differences before and after the U.S. election, but those turned out to be minor. Another unique aspect of this survey was i...

Investors are increasingly interested in metrics to evaluate companies' progress on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, particularly around climate change, an issue closely tied to long-­‐term global financial stability. We propose a new method to characterize and quantify corporate engagement with climate science and policy....

The patterns of sea ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean are investigated using two global climate models (GCMs) that have profound differences in their large-scale mean winter atmospheric circulation and sea ice drift patterns. The Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble (CESM-LE) presents a mean sea level pressure pattern that is in general agreem...

The Columbia Climate Center, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund, Woods Hole Research Center, and Arctic 21, held a workshop titled A 5 C Arctic in a 2 C World on July 20 and 21, 2016. The workshop was co-sponsored by the International Arctic Research Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks), the Arctic Institute of North America (Canada), the M...

Recent trends and climate models suggest that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is likely to be lost before climate interventions can stabilize it. There are environmental, socioeconomic and sociocultural arguments for, but also against restoring and sustaining current conditions. Even if global warming can be reversed, some people will experience ic...

The Columbia Climate Center, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund, Woods Hole Research Center, and Arctic 21, held a workshop titled A 5 ̊C Arctic in a 2 ̊C World on July 20 and 21, 2016. The workshop was co-sponsored by the International Arctic Research Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks), the Arctic Institute of North America (Canada), the...

The Columbia Climate Center, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund, Woods Hole Research Center, and Arctic 21, held a workshop titled A 5 ̊C Arctic in a 2 ̊C World on July 20 and 21, 2016. The workshop was co-sponsored by the International Arctic Research Center (University of Alaska Fairbanks), the Arctic Institute of North America (Canada), the...

Ice-rafted sediments of Eurasian and North American origin are found consistently in the upper part (13 Ma BP to present) of the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) ocean core from the Lomonosov Ridge, near the North Pole (≈88° N). Based on modern sea-ice drift trajectories and speeds, this has been taken as evidence of the presence of a perennial sea-...

Human activities increasingly lead to climate change, overuse of water, hazards and the destruction of biodiversity — to name just a few. Earth scientists need to take on the challenge of serving society on these issues, in close collaboration with engineering, social sciences and the humanities.

An environmental scientist who has developed a number of successful interdisciplinary programs will share strategies for early-career researchers who wish to pursue interdisciplinary, collaborative, problem-oriented approaches: developing a research plan, working with collaborators, presenting results, identifying/developing supportive environments...

Responding to climate change challenges in the near and far future, will require a wide range of knowledge, skills and a sense of the complexities involved. Since 1995, Columbia University and Barnard College have offered an undergraduate class that strives to provide students with some of these skills. The 'Climate System' course is a component of...

The rapidly evolving and interdisciplinary nature of climate change presents a challenge to colleges and universities as they seek to educate undergraduate students. To address this challenge, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) with NSF funding is creating a nationwide cyber-enabled learning community called CAMEL (Climate,...

While many institutions now have courses that teach climate from an earth or biological systems perspective, it is more challenging to address how to respond to climate change. Implementing adaptation and mitigation measures requires an interdisciplinary approach of involving stakeholders, identifying needs, resolving conflicts and taking action at...

As the Arctic warms, sea-ice formation and melt regions are shifting. Ice retreats earlier, open water extends farther north, and fall freeze-up comes later. The changes are already having an impact on important features of the aquatic Arctic system such as surface productivity, water-column stratification, sea-ice velocities, and the export of fre...

The need is urgent to build capacity in the environmental community, and the interdisciplinary approach is one of the most promising avenues to accomplish this. The environmental studies and sciences program movement can ably lead this effort. Based on a workshop at the second annual meeting of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences...

In recent years, large changes in sea-ice extent have been observed in the Arctic Ocean, particularly in the Beaufort, Chukchi, East Siberian and Laptev seas. The spatial distribution of the sea ice loss are not unlike those simulated by the Community Climate System Model under increased greenhouse gas forcing. The same model (CCSM3) also predicts...

Perhaps the most significant IPY contribution to science education was the vast amount of data collected at the polar-regions on Earth systems and processes that was made immediately available to teachers and curriculum developers. Supplementing textbooks with the Internet as an education partner, allowed participating teachers to transform science...

Summer sea ice may persist along the northern flank of Canada and Greenland for decades longer than the rest of the Arctic, raising the possibility of a naturally formed refugium for ice-associated species. Observations and models indicate that some ice in this region forms locally, while some is transported to the area by winds and ocean currents....

The modern depositional environment of the northern epicontinental Barents Sea varies from proximal to distal glaciomarine. The regional surface sediment distribution is controlled by erosion of shallow banks of the Pleistocene glaciated surface, with the fine material deposited in the deep basins. Near-bottom nepheloid layers are often observed in...

Two major legacies of the 4th International Polar Year (IPY 2007-9) are a newly galvanized educational community and an immense volume of polar data collected by the global science community. The tremendous new polar datasets represent a unique opportunity to communicate the nature of the changing poles to student and public audiences through this...

Do earth science publications differ by subfield or gender? To figure this out we analyzed publications in JGR Atmosphere, Oceans, and Solid Earth for the year 2000. We assumed that the first author exerted controlling influence over publication characteristics and then we looked at the number of co-authors, number of institutions represented by co...

Arctic sea ice acts as a conveyor, collecting and transporting material across the central basin, and releasing it in the marginal ice zone (MIZ). Where and when ice with different transport histories melts, has a large impact on the MIZ and is critical for understanding the vulnerability of the Arctic system to climate change. This study focuses o...

Fridtjof Nansen and Sir Ernest Shackelton, two of the most renowned polar explorers, who traveled to the North Pole in two different times, have many things in common. Their ships were frozen into the sea ice and meandered, both expeditions spanned three years, both leaders left their crews at some point, and all crew members survived. Nansen had a...

Polar bears and other ice-dependent species could survive in northern extremes provided we act now to limit the impact of human activity in the Arctic

The American Museum of Natural History, in partnership with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the Earth Institute of Columbia University and Barnard College, is featuring the International Polar Year through a New York City International Polar Weekend (NYC-IPW) in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The event showcases current polar research, polar environment...

As Arctic sea ice retreats and the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route open, the Arctic will experience more extensive human activity than it has ever encountered before. New development will put pressure on a system already struggling to adapt to a changing environment. In this analysis, locations are identified within the Arctic that could b...

Adapting a successful inquiry-based immersion program to create an Authentic, Hands-on, Field based Curriculum in Environmental Science at Barnard College T. C. Kenna, S. Pfirman, B. J. Mailloux, M. Stute, R. Kelsey, and P. Bower By adapting a successful inquiry-based immersion program (SEA semester) to the typical college format of classes, we are...

One hundred years ago, the heroic age of polar exploration was underway. At first glance the Arctic-based Fridtjof Nansen and Antarctic-based Sir Ernest Shackleton, and their most famous expeditions, are literally poles apart. But the expeditions wound up having much in common, including the fact that their fates were largely dependent on their dri...

The post-doc and the first six years of the academic lifecycle are crucial: the performance and decisions a scientist makes during this time often set the stage for the rest of his or her career. We frame our presentation around the criteria that reviewers typically use to assess candidates: reputation, impact, and productivity. Publication product...

As an international collaborative effort involving scientific organizations and scientists from over 60 nations to study the polar regions and their global linkages during an intensive observation period running from 2007 to 2009, the International Polar Year (IPY) is recognized as a unique and timely opportunity to communicate to broad audiences t...

Since 1995 Columbia and Barnard have offered Earth's Environmental Systems: Climate to undergraduate environmental majors. Both lecture and laboratory resources are available on line. In collaboration with Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory, the twelve labs engage students in exploring global databases to learn about earth processes. Evaluations of...

Publication is a critical component of modern science. By publishing their findings, scientists can ensure that their results are disseminated and substantiated. This brief report analyzes the publication and citation histories of American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellows to elucidate different styles of productivity in the geoscience community. AGU...

Arctic sea ice can incorporate sediment and associated chemical species during its formation in shallow shelf environments and can also intercept atmospherically transported material during transit. Release of this material in ice ablation areas (e.g. the Fram Strait) enhances fluxes of both sediments and associated species in such areas. We have u...

Two major issues face the scientific enterprise: the need to engage the next generation of scientists and the recognition that research frontiers don't necessarily fall within disciplinary lines. While research has focused on each of these trends independently, surprisingly few studies have considered how intellectual preferences for and profession...

Columbia University, New York City, N.Y., 17 November 2006 While the number of women in science is increasing in the United States, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in the upper ranks. U.S. universities as well as the federal government are responding to this bottleneck by increasing their investments in diversity initiatives. Fo...

For at least a decade, U.S. funding agencies and university campuses have promoted the expansion of interdisciplinary research. At the same time, federal and local programs have sought to increase the participation of women and minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering. Research has focused on each of these trends independently, but very...

The public is fascinated with polar research, especially when it is linked with exploration, discovery, adventure, isolation, self-reliance, hardship, and exotic landscapes and biota. A powerful way to engage the public in appreciating current research is to link it with accounts of historical expeditions. We have been doing this at Barnard College...

River Summer is a month-long faculty development program extending from the continental shelf off New York City to the headwaters of the Hudson in the Adirondack Mountains. During the program, faculty from the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities teach each other about the Hudson environment, using innovative methods...

Common wisdom says it takes a village to raise a child. Isn't that just another way of saying that students require an interdisciplinary education to prosper and contribute to the world? It's certainly true for training students in environmental science, where the demand is increasing for broad experiences. But how do we educate these students with...

Faculty from regional colleges, universities, and research institutes gathered this past summer to teach each other about the Hudson River in New York through a three-and-a-half week field trip called “River Summer.”A pilot field course sponsored by the newly-established Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities, the progr...

The surface hydrography of the Arctic Ocean interior can be reconstructed from oxygen isotopic analysis of drifting Arctic sea ice, coupled with back trajectories of ice drift and an ice growth model. The results compare well with values obtained by traditional oceanographic methods and known water mass distributions. Elevated oxygen-18 in ice core...

The Earth Institute has received a major NSF ADVANCE grant targeted at increasing the participation and advancement of women scientists and engineers in the Academy through institutional transformation. The Earth Institute at Columbia University includes 9 research institutes including Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Center for Environmental Rese...

An international group of 65 scientists, educators and media specialists gathered at the "Bridging the Poles" workshop in Washington, DC on June 23-25, to define strategies that will inspire the general public and engage the next generation of polar scientists, engineers and leaders. This NSF-sponsored workshop was the first effort to develop an in...

The "Bridging the Poles: Education Linked with Research" workshop of June 23-25, brought together an international group of 65 scientists, educators and media specialists to define strategies to engage the next generation of polar scientists, engineers and leaders, and inspire the general public. The workshop results emphasized the need to leverage...

1] d 18 O profiles in drifting Arctic sea ice are coupled with back trajectories of ice drift and an ice growth model to reconstruct the surface hydrography of the Arctic Ocean interior. The results compare well with d 18 O values obtained by traditional oceanographic methods and known water mass distributions. Analysis of the stable isotopic compo...

Analysis of Arctic sea ice drift from 1979–1997 using a Lagrangian perspective shows the complexities of ice drift response to variations in atmospheric conditions. Changes in ice dynamics influence the redistribution of ice, and any transported material, from different source areas. Sources of ice exported to Fram Strait shifted in about 1986/87 f...

In our article “On Gender Equity in the Geosciences,” we are not advocating a quota of 50% women in the geosciences, but rather, suggesting that the field would be strengthened if all the individuals with doctorates in the geosciences (including the 28% of all Ph.D.s who are women) were to remain active in these fields [ National Science Board , 20...

If the 65 educators, scientists, and media specialists who gathered at the “Bridging the Poles” workshop in Washington, D.C. last June have their way a semitrailer truck labeled “Got Snow?” would traverse the country during the International Polar Year (IPY) of 2007–2009 loaded with polar gear, interactive activities, and a snowmaker. We would sign...

Exploring the Poles is a First Year Seminar course taught at Barnard College, Columbia University. First Year Seminars are required of incoming students and are designed to encourage critical analysis in a small class setting with focused discussion. The class links historical polar exploration with current research in order to: introduce non-scien...

Women are now routinely chief scientists on major cruises, lead field parties to all continents, and have risen to leadership positions in professional organizations, academic departments and government agencies including major funding agencies. They teach at all levels, advise research students, make research discoveries and receive honors in reco...

The blatant barriers are down. Women are now routinely chief scientists on major cruises, lead field parties to all continents, and have risen to leadership positions in professional organizations, academic departments, and funding agencies. Nonetheless, barriers remain. Women continue to be under-represented in the Earth, ocean, and atmospheric sc...

Earth Science instruction is challenged today by rapid information growth and a need to integrate information from a number of disciplines. Fortunately, most of this information is in digital form, so the computer's capacity to integrate, process and display data can help students learn from data. The Lamont Data Viewer, originally developed for re...

The freshwater lens covering the surface of the Arctic Ocean is roughly 50 to 150 meters thick and consists of river runoff, sea-ice meltwater, and low-salinity water of Pacific origin imported through Bering Strait. Whereas salinity data provide us with a good picture of the distribution and variability of the total freshwater contained in the Arc...

During the past decades, a variety of transient tracers have been used to derive information on pathways and mean residence times of oceanic water masses. Here, we discuss how information obtained in such studies can be applied to studying the spreading of dissolved pollutants in the ocean. The discussion focuses on the transient tracers tritium/3H...

Sea ice formed over shallow Arctic shelves often entrains sediments resuspended from the sea floor. Some of this sediment-laden ice advects offshore into the Transpolar Drift Stream and the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Basin. Through the processes of seasonal melting at the top surface, and the freezing of clean ice on the bottom surface, these sedi...

Export of sea ice from the Kara Sea may redistribute contaminants entrained from atmospheric, marine and riverine sources. Ice exiting the Kara Sea ice to the north, will influence the Fram Strait, Svalbard and Barents Sea regions. Kara Sea ice may also be exported to the Barents Sea through straits north and south of Novaya Zemlya. Some ice from t...

Sea ice has been reported to contain contaminants from atmospheric and nearshore sediment resuspension processes. In this study successive passive microwave images from the 85.5 GHz channels on the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) were merged with drifting buoy trajectories from the International Arctic Buoy Program to compute Arctic sea ice...

Recent studies have indicated that drifting Arctic sea ice plays an important role in the redistribution of sediments and contaminants. Here we present a method to reconstruct the backward trajectory of sea ice from its sampling location in the Eurasian Arctic to its possible site of origin on the shelf, based on historical drift data from the Inte...

The key features of the large-scale circulation of the Arctic Ocean are reviewed based on distributions of hydrographic parameters and natural and anthropogenic trace substances. Salinity and mass balances, as well as a combination of the tracers tritium and δ18O, suggest a mean residence time of the shelf waters in the Siberian seas of about 3 yea...

Satellite images from the Kara Sea show that, until July, fast-ice extends along the coast and Fills the estuaries of the Ob' and Yenisey rivers. It is separated from offshore drift-ice by a region of open water, comprising a flaw lead/polynya. By August, much of the fast and drift-ice has melted and retreated from the southwestern Kara Sea, leavin...

Nuclear activity on land and dumping of waste in the Siberian shelf seas mean that the Kara Sea is most likely to experience inputs of radioactivity. Industrial and other anthropogenic activities in the expansive Ob' and Yenisey watersheds also contribute organochlorines, heavy metals and oil to this region. Contaminant fate is influenced by the di...

Drifting sea ice in the Arctic may transport contaminants from coastal areas across the pole and release them during melting far from the source areas. Arctic sea ice often contains sediments entrained on the Siberian shelves and receives atmospheric deposition from Arctic haze. Elevated levels of some heavy metals (e.g. lead, iron, copper and cadm...

Acoustic backscatter imagery in the Farm strait (between Greenland and Spitzbergen) reveals a 1-3-km-wide, 50-km-long belt of -50 pointlike backscatter objects decorating the -1300-m-deep crest of Vestnesa Ridge, a 1 [minus]> 2 km thick sediment drift possibly underlain by a transform-parallel oceanic basement ridge (crustal ages approximately 3-14...