Smithsonian receives $10 million donation to support research and education on climate resilience
The gift will establish the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to study tropical resilience and educate the public about the role of resilience.
Grant and Award AnnouncementThe Smithsonian has received a $10 million donation from business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht to advance climate resilience research and education. The donation will launch the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to research tropical resilience and educate the public about the role resilience—the ability to prepare for and respond to global change—plays in shaping the world around us.
The donation will fund the establishment of a center for resilience and sustainability within the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. This center will study the resilience and sustainability connecting complex tropical systems, such as rainforests, and the people who depend on these systems. In addition, the center will build from resilience found in natural systems, working with partners and communities to devise and field-test solutions. Program areas will include scaling up of Smithsonian programs that restore and rewild natural rainforest communities, encourage more environmentally conscious fishing practices, and work to understand the risks, triggers and tipping points in tropical forests and reefs.
STRI also will develop a suite of bilingual educational and outreach tools focused on resilience. With the support of staff scientists, fellows, students, and partners, STRI will develop a collection of socio-ecological teaching case studies that can be used to develop courses for policy makers and field practitioners, aimed at improving the integration of rapidly evolving science findings in decision making.
“People and communities around the world are increasingly threatened by changing climates, and Adrienne’s generous donation will help the Smithsonian in its efforts to help find solutions,” said Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “Her gift will strengthen the Smithsonian’s climate resilience research in Latin America and beyond, as well as create new opportunities to educate our children about the importance of sustainability, resilience and conservation.”
This gift marks the first time Arsht has made a substantial donation to the Smithsonian. Arsht, Chair Emerita of TotalBank in Florida, has long supported the arts with donations to the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center in New York and the Center for Performing Arts in Miami. Arsht also has made two significant contributions to the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., where she funded and created the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.
“With Adrienne’s thoughtful and generous gift, we can conduct the research to make the planet more sustainable and help lead the country in discussions about what resilience means,” said Ellen Stofan, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science and Research. “All of us at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and our colleagues from across the Smithsonian, are energized and inspired by this important contribution,” added STRI’s director, Joshua Tewksbury.
“The Smithsonian Institution shares my vision on how to build a more resilient world where people and nature can thrive together,” Arsht said. “I am excited to see how this gift, combined with the Smithsonian’s 175-year history of data collection and educational leadership, helps the Institution inspire the next generation of leaders.”
Other new programs funded by this donation include the Smithsonian’s 15-stop virtual resilience tour, which will partner the Smithsonian’s science units with its arts and culture museums and programs to explore different interpretations of resilience. The tour targets young adults and includes virtual, 3D, augmented reality and in-person experiences focused on planetary sustainability. Another key component of this initiative is the Smithsonian Resilience Fund, an Institution-wide competitive grant program to foster and elevate resilience work across all Smithsonian museums and centers to seed the Institution’s vision for sustainability.
Overall, this initiative will serve as a catalyst and platform for promoting and conducting scientific research in Panama and across the tropics and increase the reach, relevance, and impact of research findings.
AT&T, FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory collaborate to launch climate risk and resilience portal for U.S. communities
Business AnnouncementThe portal will help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.
What’s the news?
AT&T, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory today announced the launch of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR), which advances access to cutting-edge science for climate projections to help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.
This announcement comes as world leaders gather for the United Nations climate change conference COP27.
“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data.” — Argonne Director Paul Kearns
Using climate science modeling that is among the most sophisticated methodologies worldwide, ClimRR gives state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers and community leaders free access to localized data about future climate risks that can be used to explore strategies for resilience. Initial hazards included in ClimRR are temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. Additional risks, such as wildfire and flooding, will be added in the coming months.
AT&T originally commissioned Argonne’s Center for Climate Resilience and Decision Science to produce the climate projections in ClimRR for the company’s own adaptation efforts. Through this collaboration, AT&T has made the data used in ClimRR publicly available.
Why is this important?
One in three Americans say they have been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the past two years. These climate impacts, which are becoming more frequent and intense, can vary not just from state to state, but even at the local level.
ClimRR provides peer-reviewed climate data sets in a nontechnical format and puts high-resolution, forward-looking climate insights into the hands of those who need them most. Community leaders and public safety officials can now understand how increasing climate risks will affect their populations. Access to this information will assist leaders as they strategically invest in infrastructure and response capabilities to protect communities for future generations.
What are people saying?
“While fortifying the AT&T network against climate change is critical for the millions of people who rely on the connectivity we provide, resiliency can’t be built in a vacuum,” said Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and SVP-Corporate Social Responsibility at AT&T. “Our world is interdependent. We want other organizations and communities to see where they’re potentially vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient. That’s why we’re excited to make our data publicly available and to work closely with FEMA and Argonne to get it into the right hands.”
“FEMA works with a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sectors to achieve the goals outlined in our 2022-2026 Strategic Plan,” said FEMA’s Acting Deputy Administrator, Victoria Salinas. “These goals include leading the whole of community in climate resilience as well as promoting and sustaining a ready FEMA and a prepared nation. ClimRR will help us make progress against these critical objectives.”
“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. “Harnessing the power of our supercomputers, we are making cutting-edge climate data available to the public sector and local planning officials to help them better understand local climate change risks and take the needed actions to become more climate resilient.”
What else should you know?
Climate projections from ClimRR can be overlayed with community and infrastructure information sourced from the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). Combining data from ClimRR and RAPT allows users to understand local-scale climate risks in the context of existing community demographics and infrastructure, including the location of vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure.
AT&T assesses climate factors in its own operations to ensure the company’s infrastructure can meet customer needs in the face of increasing threats from climate change. Risks like flooding, wildfire, drought and wind are integrated into network resilience efforts and infrastructure planning processes. The company has accumulated years of experience interpreting the data. This expertise helped inform the creation of ClimRR to ensure the climate projections are actionable for local communities.
The data in ClimRR was produced by Argonne using the dynamical downscaling method, which simulates the many different processes affecting the atmosphere, ocean and land. This results in projections for a broader range of climate variables than the often-used statistical downscaling method and has the potential to improve estimates of extreme events at a local scale.
How else does AT&T support FEMA? FEMA also selected AT&T to modernize its communications capabilities and enhance its ability to help people before, during and after disasters. FEMA is using FirstNet®, Built with AT&T — America’s public safety network built with and for first responders — to stay connected when it matters most.
More information about AT&T’s environmental sustainability efforts and goals can be found on the company’s website.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
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