News Releases
The latest news releases from UW-Madison and the Nelson Institute about our programs, activities, and people.
Thursday, November 19
After mastadons and mammoths, a transformed landscape
Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals — including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers — began their precipitous slide to extinction. And when their populations crashed, emptying a land whose diversity of large animals equaled or surpassed Africa's wildlife-rich Serengeti plains then or now, an entirely novel ecosystem emerged as broadleaved trees once kept in check by huge numbers of big herbivores claimed the landscape. Soon after, the accumulation of woody debris sparked a dramatic increase in the prevalence of wildfire, another key shaper of landscapes.Monday, November 16
Warmer means windier on world's biggest lake
Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren, according to scientists connected with the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research.Thursday, November 05
Students take environmental messages, activism local
The Tales from Planet Earth film festival this weekend, Nov. 6-8, will screen some 50 environmental films from around the world that explore how stories told through film can influence our understanding of, and relationships to, nature. But the festival, organized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, is more than just hunkering down in a dark theater to watch spectacular films: Organizers hope the films will inspire audiences to action on behalf of environmental justice and the diversity of life.Wednesday, October 28
Majora Carter, Hurricane Katrina film to open Tales from Planet Earth festival
Noted “green collar” jobs and environmental justice advocate Majora Carter will kick off the 2009 Tales from Planet Earth community and film festival with a public talk, “Green the Ghetto and How Much it Won’t Cost Us,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in the Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St.Thursday, October 15
'Tales from Planet Earth' leverages power of film for community action
The Tales from Planet Earth film festival takes center stage in Madison Nov. 6-8 with something new – a built-in call to action.Tuesday, October 06
Climate competition offers up to $100,000 in awards
Now in its second year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Climate Leadership Challenge really means business. Organizers of the competition, which encourages student solutions to climate change, have doubled the amount of cash to be awarded – to a total of up to $100,000 – to help the winning teams put their products or programs into action.Wednesday, September 23
Improving environmental health, one field at a time
They’re needy, high maintenance — and delicious fried, baked or mashed. Potatoes are big business in Wisconsin — more than a quarter-billion-dollar industry last year — but it’s a business that can come with a hefty environmental price tag. Large-scale cultivation may rely on chemical pesticides to keep bugs at bay and fertilizers to nourish the soil.Wednesday, September 23
Ecologist Paul Ehrlich to speak in Madison Oct. 8
Paul Ehrlich, whose book “The Population Bomb” helped fuel the rise of the modern environmental movement four decades ago, will give a free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University, will speak about his most recent book, “The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment.”Monday, September 14
Study reveals dynamic Wisconsin climate, past and future
If the future scenarios being churned out by the world’s most sophisticated computer climate models are on the mark, big changes are in store for Wisconsin’s weather during the next century.Friday, July 17
'Motion picture' of past warming paves way for snapsnots of future climate change
By accurately modeling Earth's last major global warming — and answering pressing questions about its causes — scientists led by UW-Madison and National Center for Atmospheric Research climatologists are unraveling the intricacies of the kind of abrupt climate shifts that may occur in the future.Wednesday, July 15
Buffering Wisconsin’s water quality with science
Spring in Wisconsin heralds a new growing season. But the warming temperatures also bring heavier runoff from farm fields, carrying pollution and contaminants into the state’s lakes and streams.Thursday, June 25