Office of Sustainability

While many climate-related courses focus solely on the forces that drive climate change, ENVI 6100 students learn about these driving forces for the purpose of understanding the ultimate consequences of climate change. The class addresses the changing climate and applies these changes to different ecosystems, inquiring about how climate change impacts flora, fauna, and diverse biospheres. ENVI 6100 assesses the potential future impacts of climate change by looking at past and present climate crisis consequences. The focuses of ENVI 6100 are the consequences of climate change rather than climate change itself, giving students perspective on why climate action is an urgent matter. ENVI 6100 is offered through the College of Agriculture.

The International Center for Climate and Global Change Research (ICCGCR) features the collaborative efforts of the Colleges of Science and Mathematics, Agriculture, Engineering, Liberal Arts, and the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment. The ICCGCR fosters a space for interdisciplinary research as pertaining to climate change and includes publications from a wide range of colleges. The ICCGCR also develops various graduate courses related to climate change and its relationship with ecology. Director of the ICCGCR, Dr. Hanqin Tian, was nationally ranked in 2021 as among the world’s most influential climate scientists.

Facilities Energy Management (FEM) monitors electricity, gas, and water usage of campus buildings to lower energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. FEM’s Energy Reduction Strategy, a key climate-related initiative underway at AU, is a collection of aggressive energy reduction goals. The strategy has resulted in the metering of nearly every building on Auburn’s campus, tracking data to identify leaks and other issues. FEM uses a building commissioning, recommissioning, and retro-commissioning program to improve and upgrade building mechanicals to ensure safe, efficient, and optimal operating conditions. FEM’s outreach includes relationships with community partners to support students through mentorship, guest lecturers, and tours of renewable energy plants and solar arrays.

Dr. Chandana Mitra of the College of Sciences and Mathematics visited Auburn High School to educate and create awareness among high school students about climate crises and their impacts. Dr. Mitra and a graduate student in the Department of Geosciences presented on climate change and the impacts of urban growth on local climate, including the Urban Heat Island effect. The high school environmental science class engaged in hands-on experiences by taking measurements with infrared thermometers and hydrometers. Educating high school students about climate change is important for raising the next generation of climate actioners and increasing awareness among young people’s peers and families.

Dr. Susan (Shufen) Pan is an Associate Professor and Director of the GIS and Remote Sensing Laboratory in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment at Auburn University. She has more than 20 years of experience in geospatial analysis, ecosystem modeling and remote sensing applications. Dr. Pan’s research program aims to Monitor, Assess and Predict the impacts of climate change and other environmental stresses on ecosystems and people, and provide geospatial solutions for enhancing ecosystem resilience to environmental stresses. Dr. Pan’s research projects have covered a range of topics such as climate change and land use impacts on terrestrial productivity, water resources, natural disasters and ecosystem resilience, and water-food-energy nexus across many regions of the world including North America, Asia and Africa.

In his paper, “The terrestrial biosphere as a net source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere,” College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment’s Dr. Hanqin Tian and his colleagues examined the balance of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the land biosphere and the human contribution of these gases to the biosphere. The terrestrial biosphere sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide, thus mitigating climate change. But the human transformation of the land biosphere has caused a large amount of methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Dr. Tian’s research reveals for the first time that human activities have transformed the land biosphere to act as a contributor to climate change.