Day 6 of #AGU20: Hearts in the Ice, climate change and pets of AGU

By: Brooks Hanson, Lauren Parr on 9 December 2020 at 9:56 am

Tuesday was another busy day at #AGU20. Just a reminder that all sessions are recorded and available for attendees. Access will be provided for these recordings until 15 February.

Here are some highlights and other ways to find interesting sessions. Be sure to also check out the daily suggestions and suggestions from some sections at AGU Connect:

Hilda and Sunniva, warmly welcomed all of AGU into their work, and global engagement project, Hearts in the Ice. Their efforts, including being on site for many months each year on the ice in Spitzbergen, connects students, scientists, manufacturers, environmental organizations and all who care about the health of our planet to address climate change. This plenary continued a broad theme emergent in #AGU20 for the need for engagement, communication, and sharing of Earth and space science.
A focus of many of the named lectures this week has been around climate change, from navigating the public arena, to the role of the ocean, atmospheric chemistry, and forests, to understanding carbon during glacial cycles, to a history of the IPCC process, to consequences for future floods and droughts, and more. Collectively these provide an accessible and rich overview of the diversity of science brought to bear on this topic, history, and politics.
NOAA released its annual Arctic Report Card during a press conference on 8 December. Now in its 15^th year, the report card catalogs for 2020 the numerous ways that climate change continues to disrupt the polar region. All #AGU20 press conferences will be posted on AGU’s YouTube channel shortly after they are complete.
Multiple sessions detailed how COVID-10 is impacting the Earth system, including C011 – Light-Absorbing Particles and Biological Constituents in the Cryosphere, Including Impacts from COVID-19 I and U003 – COVID-19 and the Earth System. You can find more sessions in the COVID-19 itinerary.
Poster sessions continued today. Here are a few we heard about:
AGU blogger Laura Guertin has a running thread of what she is attending and seeing at #AGU20.

Two fun highlights from #AGU20:

Julia Cisneros asks #AGU20 attendees to post your “before times” photos from earlier in-person meetings: https://twitter.com/Juliamorphology/status/1336366713458319362
We want to see your “Pets of #AGU20!” Show us your pets enjoying #AGU20 with you!
- Tag us @theAGU on Twitter and #AGU20: https://wke.lt/w/s/jv2gNM

More than 300 press from worldwide news outlets are attending the meeting again this year. Here are a few of the news stories from #AGU20:

Feedback Loops of Fire Activity and Climate Change in Canada. Eos, 8 December. New research documents how a warming climate contributes to wildfire patterns and how the fires contribute to climate change. This article has a short accompanying podcast from Third Pod from the Sun.
Lyme Disease and the Dangers of the Forest Edge. Eos, 8 December. Living near a forest edge may be an important risk factor for Lyme disease; these liminal spaces provide the perfect habitat for one of the black-legged tick’s favorite hosts.
Drivers of Upper Atmosphere Climate Change. Eos, December 8. New research confirms the influence of carbon dioxide on long-term temperature trends in the upper atmosphere, but changes in Earth’s magnetic field also play a key role.
Shift to a Not-So-Frozen North Is Well Underway, Scientists Warn. The New York Times, 8 December. The Arctic continued its unwavering shift toward a new climate in 2020, as the effects of near-record warming surged across the region, shrinking ice and snow cover and fueling extreme wildfires, scientists said Tuesday in an annual assessment of the region.

Note: not all recordings of live sessions may be available at the time of this post, but they will be available in the coming days. Please check the online platform for updates.