Day 7 of #AGU20: honoring our colleagues and learning about GeoHealth

Wednesday was another busy day at #AGU20 featuring sessions and events. #AGU20 now has ~25,000 attendees. Recordings for sessions are available as soon as possible after completion. Some highlights include:

• AGU’s 2020 honorees were honored with a special video featuring the Union Medals, Awards and Prize recipients as well as Fellows. Thanks to the 4000 attendees that viewed this and the other honors videos. If you missed it, visit the online platform or our Facebook page, where you can leave a note of congratulations in the comments. You can also find more information about all the honorees in the 2020 Award Showcase.
• In Wednesday’s Plenary, Rita Colwell, AGU’s Bowie Medalist in 2020 and former director of the NSF, weaved connections between her decades of experience studying infectious diseases, and especially cholera, and the COVID pandemic and climate change.
• Past Outstanding Student Presentation Award winners provided high-level talks about their research during U008 – Student Engagement to Enhance Development: Outstanding Student Presentation Award Winners from Fall Meeting 2019 II eLightning.
• Distinguished scientists discussed climate change, earthquakes and space physics during named lectures. Isabella Velicogna began her Nye Lecture emphasizing the importance of expanding diversity and inclusivity in Earth and space science, another emergent theme of this meeting (see related session below).
• Two press briefings examined the unequal impacts of heat, pollution and climate change and how scientists are listening to a quieter ocean in the pandemic to track impacts on marine life.
• Several Science to Action sessions explored indigenous perspectives in environmental science and policy and partnering with communities to address climate change. You can check out all the Science to Action sessions and events here. And see the related innovative session next week: INV09 – Convergence, Collaboration, Justice, and the Future of the Sciences
• Other sessions to check out on-demand or in the poster gallery:
  • B044 – Fire–Vegetation Interactions and Ecosystem Resilience in a Warmer World I
  • Several sessions focused on the power of open data and how to make that possible more seamlessly, including SY028 – Data for All: Open Data Sharing and Analytics to Empower Science eLightning (and other related sessions). The importance and value of open data have come up throughout the meeting, for example in remarks from the new cryosphere fellows as part of the Nye Lecture. Have question on your data? Visit the Data Help Desk, accessible from the main lobby.
  • SY017 – Science and Society: Art and Science–for some compelling talks and conversations about how art and science are interlinked.
  • A071 – Applications of Machine Learning Algorithms in Modeling Atmospheric Aerosols, Clouds, and Radiation I
  • C022 – Understanding Ice Shelf Processes III Posters
  • T022 – From Trench to Back Arc: Dynamics of the Hikurangi Subduction Zone I
  • GC046 – Sustainability in FEW Nexus Systems Through Novel Interdisciplinary Research Advances, Earth Observations, and Policy Science for Adaptation Strategies I
  • ED018 – Expanding Opportunities in the Geosciences: Exploring Examples of Geo-STEM Learning Ecosystems That Promote Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion III
  • OS018 – El Niño–Southern Oscillation in a Changing Climate III
  • AE006 – High-Resolution Data Analysis and Modeling in Atmospheric and Space Electricity I eLightning

Poster highlights includes:

• https://twitter.com/DenisFelikson/status/1336654594739326977
• https://twitter.com/IceShelvesAndAC/status/1336649387611738114
• https://twitter.com/ICASLeeds/status/1336641744792743938
• https://twitter.com/RLybrand629/status/1336639228319391744
• https://twitter.com/saygin_erdinc/status/1336636329535229953
• https://twitter.com/TryNathan/status/1336632406699356160
• https://twitter.com/ParisaMostafav1/status/1336619096062926849
• https://twitter.com/Indiginerd/status/1336658526186311680

Please check out the exhibit hall, featuring dozens of exhibitors, by going to the main lobby. Chat with companies and institutions, and maybe score some free virtual swag!

And tune in for our Virtu-ale Happy Hours! Yesterday’s featured an engaging interview with a NASA engineer who served throughout the Apollo program, and specifically about Apollo 13. Tonight’s will feature science rapper Baba Brinkman and some special guests.

News from #AGU20 includes:

• Contamination of Medicinal Plants: Implications for Indigenous Health. Eos, 9 December. A new study will trace the legacy of uranium mining on commercially available medicinal plants.
• Will Rising Temperatures Make Rice Too Toxic? Eos, 9 December. Greenhouse experiments reveal how higher temperatures act to elevate arsenic levels in rice and may help focus efforts to solve a crisis threatening food systems around the world.
• When Cyclones and Conflicts Collide. Eos, 9 December. New research might identify communities vulnerable to political violence in the aftermath of natural disasters.
• Human Activity Makes India’s Coastlines More Vulnerable. Eos, 9 December. Researchers propose the creation of an anthropogenic vulnerability index to help guide conservation policy decisions.
• Sahara’s ‘Godzilla’ dust storm may have been triggered by warming in the Arctic. Live Science, 9 December. An enormous dust cloud dubbed “Godzilla” that surged over the Sahara Desert in June and then blew toward the U.S. may have reached its record-breaking size and density due to warming in the Arctic.
• Greenhouse gas emissions transforming the Arctic into ‘an entirely different climate’. The Guardian, 9 December. The Arctic’s rapid transformation into a less frozen, hotter and biologically altered place has been further exacerbated by a year of wildfires, soaring temperatures and loss of ice, US scientists have reported.

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.