In February, Woodwell Climate Research Center’s new Climate Justice committee gathered for the very first time. Even through the screen, you could feel it—a buzz of anticipation, the spark of hope, as folks from across the organization came together to dream about the vision and goals ahead.

This was no ordinary meeting—it was the first step in what many hope will be a transformative journey for Woodwell Climate, guiding us toward a more just and equitable climate future. Like a handful of seeds taking root, this meeting was full of potential. Participants shared ideas and intentions that, with care and nurture, could grow into something powerful that reshapes the landscape of Woodwell Climate’s global impact.

Climate justice is indispensable to Woodwell’s work

Climate change is being felt around the world, but as its effects become more frequent and intense, the unequal impacts on different communities become more obvious. Some communities are disproportionately affected, while others benefit more from societal responses to climate change.

A salient example of this can be found in the aftermath of climate-related disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. Affluence of a community or country plays a role in shielding citizens from the worst effects of the disaster, and efforts to rebuild are often much swifter. Meanwhile, low income communities must often face forced displacement, material destruction, and cultural degradation.

This growing disparity underscores the need for research and solutions that acknowledge and work to rectify these inequities. Because climate change creates and exacerbates inequitable situations, addressing disparity must be a central consideration in both current climate research and long-term climate adaptation strategies.

Climate justice is an approach to addressing climate change that not only considers, but centers, disproportionate impacts. It integrates principles of social justice, human rights, and equity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental issues with systems of oppression. By centering those most affected by climate injustice—who are also the least responsible for causing it—climate justice reframes the issue as not only scientific, technical, or financial but as a moral and justice concern. It requires us to consider not just where and how climate change is happening but also who is excluded or marginalized by the physical and social mechanisms of climate change and by any adaptation or mitigation efforts we pursue.

As an institution dedicated to using science to inform climate change policy, integrating climate justice enriches our work in five significant ways.

First, by identifying who is disproportionately affected, our research and policy recommendations can be more targeted and effective in addressing vulnerabilities that might otherwise be overlooked.
Second, demonstrating a commitment to equity in our work increases our credibility and broadens our support among diverse stakeholders, including members of historically marginalized communities.
Third, understanding the social, cultural, and economic contexts in which climate impacts occur allows us to develop strategies that are not only scientifically sound but also socially relevant and adaptable.
Fourth, policies shaped with an awareness of who is excluded or marginalized are more likely to succeed because they are grounded in the realities of those most affected.
Lastly, by considering who is excluded or marginalized, we can address not only the symptoms but also the root causes of climate injustice, leading to more comprehensive and lasting solutions.

Nurturing a growing climate justice ecosystem

It’s essential to remember that this kind of transformative work is often slow, challenging, and asks for a commitment that stretches beyond the urgency of the moment. There’s no magic wand, no quick-fix—something we know deeply, sometimes frustratingly, from our scientific work. Real climate justice isn’t something you can cook up in isolation or rush through with a checklist. It’s born from the steady, patient work of weaving relationships, dismantling entrenched inequalities, and watering the seeds of small, consistent actions—nurtured across many hands and hearts over time, even when the growth feels almost imperceptible.

Think of it like the slow growth of trees that eventually give rise to forests—subtle, persistent, inevitable. The key is to stay rooted in purpose, grounded in the values that guide us, trusting that even the smallest efforts will accumulate into something deep, something strong, something lasting—like a mature old-growth forest, resilient through the cycles of time.

The work we’re doing as a committee is very much in its early, tender stages. It is dynamic and evolving, like the ‘pioneer stage’ of a forest’s life. Here, the groundwork is being lovingly (and with considerable effort) laid for what’s to come, like the lichens and mosses breaking down rock, slowly transforming barren ground into rich, life-giving soil. In these first steps, we are creating the conditions for future growth, for future flourishing.

As we move forward, the process becomes more complex—a kind of intermediate stage. Dandelions, grasses, the boldest and most audacious plants take root first, thanks to the quiet, persistent work of the mosses and lichens. The rest need a little more nurturing, a bit more care. Diversity begins to blossom—shrubs, small trees, and layers of life start to interweave, creating habitats for fungi, microbes, and animals. The community is expanding, deepening, finding its rhythm. Together as a committee we will expand our capacity to interweave more complex ideas and projects, allowing our work to deepen and evolve like a thriving ecosystem.

And then, like the forest maturing into its climax stage, we envision a time when the ecosystem is stable, resilient, and thriving—a rich blend of old, wise trees and vibrant new growth. A place where deep-rooted interconnectedness allows life to sustain itself, weathering disturbances with grace. As a Climate Justice Committee, we aim to create a space where renewal is constant, change is embraced, and growth is continuous—ever adaptive, ever committed to justice, and ever alive to the needs of all, as Woodwell Climate continues to work towards an equitable, healthy and sustainable world.

Pioneering climate justice work at Woodwell

Our first offering as a committee of mosses and lichens is to craft a set of actionable recommendations to help guide Woodwell Climate toward a future where our work is deeply rooted in the principles of climate justice, rich in diverse perspectives, and resilient in the face of challenges. This is our way of fostering the right environment for the seeds of future work to grow into a thriving, enduring ecosystem of ideas and actions. Our pioneer stage isn’t growing from a completely “barren substrate” however. We’re rich in resources – our science, staff, and you, our supporters reading this!

While developing these recommendations will be inherently challenging, it’s critical that we get it right together. How we reach our goals is just as important as the goals themselves, and our collaborative process should reflect principles of justice, equity and mutual support. In other words, the process itself should be a model of the world we are trying to create.

Drawing inspiration from Team Science—a collaborative approach to scientific challenges—Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy, which highlights the importance of cultivating relationships, trust, and community-building in collaborative work, and Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid, which emphasizes equitable distribution of roles, responsibilities, and credit in a supportive environment, we have created a team charter, establishing the principles guiding how we will work together.

The team charter aligns members on the goals we are working toward and how members will approach the work together, providing clarity and focus. It creates a shared understanding of the team’s purpose and mission and fosters a sense of ownership and commitment that makes it easier to stay focused on long-term goals. By clearly defining roles and responsibilities, the charter reduces confusion and prevents overlap, ensuring that everyone’s contributions are recognized and understood. The guidelines for equitable participation, decision-making, and conflict resolution, set forth in the charter, help build a culture where all voices are heard and respected. Principles of flexibility and continued improvement are embedded into the charter as well, allowing the team to adapt as needed.

Our hope is that this foundational work, like the pioneer stages of a forest, sets the stage for a process of ongoing growth, adaptation, and transformation that will carry Woodwell’s climate justice work into the future. As our work progresses (starting now with developing those recommendations), we’ll move through the intermediate stages of ecological succession—where new members are integrated and experimentation thrives. We’ll learn from both successes and setbacks, like our scientists testing their ideas in the field. Ultimately, we’ll cultivate a mature, stable ecosystem, where deep-rooted relationships hold the committee together.

Yet even in this stage, just as in a primary forest, dynamic change continues. A gap in the canopy lets in light, sparking fresh growth and kickstarting another round of succession. We find ourselves asking: How might we spark deep and lasting change for a just climate future? The forest teaches us that the answers lie in cycles of renewal, in allowing space for the new while honoring the stability of what’s been built.

Is methane release from the Arctic unstoppable?

Global warming has already caused the Arctic to release more climate-warming methane—but exactly how much will depend closely on the actions we take to halt climate change.

an aerial photo of the Alaskan tundra, showing a green landscape with many small lakes

Under the Arctic ice lies an extremely carbon-rich environment. Over thousands of years, plants in the Arctic have absorbed carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air to grow, before being buried under snow and ice during the winter, becoming part of the soil. If this perennially frozen ground thaws—as it is now, as a result of climate change—ancient plants are uncovered, alongside plant-eating microbes that break them down.

This releases two main climate-warming greenhouse gases: CO2, and even more potent methane.

Continue reading on Climate Portal.

Woodwell Climate’s Government Relations team led the Center’s third annual D.C. fly-in this September, and you might say the third time was the charm.

“It was really impressive to see how we’ve built over the three years of doing the fly-in,” said Laura Uttley, Director of Government Relations. “The scale and scope of meetings, having five of 13 Congressional meetings be with Members themselves, and to have 17 Board members, senior leaders, and scientists participate—it’s just really exciting.”

Over the course of three days, the Woodwell Climate delegation tackled a range of near-term legislative priorities, such as the Natural Climate Solutions Research and Extension Act, standalone legislation that is currently being considered as part of Farm Bill negotiations and was adapted in the House version of the Farm Bill as “soil health research,” as well as longer-term policy development and relationship building.

Engagements spanned the full diversity of Woodwell Climate’s work. Meetings with leadership of the House Climate Solutions Caucus and Conservative Climate Caucus focused on the economic impacts of climate change and the need for expanded national climate services to make risk information available to all communities. A Permafrost Pathways delegation, including representatives of Alaska Native partner communities, shared a range of perspectives on rapid Arctic change with Alaska legislators and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. One group talked with staff in the office of Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) of New York about carbon markets, and with Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) about Massachusetts-based research, including river monitoring and wetland restoration. Woodwell Climate also met with Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Chair of the Democratic Caucus, to discuss opportunities to advance and protect climate policies, especially as leadership considers agendas for the next Congress.

Across all the sub-teams and meetings, Uttley says three big takeaways stood out:

1. Relationships matter

That Woodwell’s delegation secured thirteen Congressional meetings—five of them with Members themselves, including leadership of key committees and caucuses—is a testament to the Center’s credibility and the depth of relationships that the Government Relations team is building. A summer of high-profile Supreme Court decisions, the end of the fiscal year looming, and a tumultuous election cycle all contributed to a chaotic energy on the Hill in September, and legislators were only in session for three weeks between their summer recess and a break for election activities. Despite those pressures, Uttley says lawmakers and their staff were enthusiastic and engaged.

She attributes that to months (years, really) of relationship building grounded in a “here’s where we agree, and here’s how we can help” approach. An enormous amount of time and thought goes into crafting meeting agendas and materials that meet legislators where they are, address their needs and interests, and highlight common ground and opportunities for progress.

Consistency is also key, Uttley says. While individual Members come and go, and the political climate shifts, Woodwell Climate’s annual fly-in and growing year-round presence in Washington, D.C. are reminders that we are a reliable resource of information, and in it for the long haul.

2. Caucuses and committees are impact amplifiers

Meetings with individual legislators and/or their staff can be incredibly productive, but time is limited. Briefing an entire committee or meeting with leadership of a caucus group can be an effective way to get scientific expertise and policy priorities to many legislators at once. For example, part of the Woodwell delegation met with leadership of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus (more than 60 members), staff for the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (100 Democratic members), and staff for the Conservative Climate Caucus, which has more than 80 Republican members, all interested in pragmatic climate solutions. These larger groups are also less susceptible to disruption through election cycles, which creates opportunities to work on policy agendas with a longer runway.

3. Accessible information makes a difference

Maps on the table, personal accounts of climate impacts, data tailored to a legislator’s district, and plain language science summaries were all on display during the fly-in, and Uttley says the Center’s commitment to making climate science relevant and accessible is a distinguishing feature that opens doors and builds relationships.

“To be able to find hooks and make climate science accessible for such a range of audiences on so many different topics is really impactful,” Uttley said.

Overall, Uttley said being in the room as scientists, community members, and policymakers —and seeing the energy they all came away with—left her with one overarching takeaway: Change is possible and “the Climate Science for Change motto is actually lived; it’s not just something we say.”

Thousands of fires are burning in the drought-wracked Amazon

Much of Brazil is burning as tens of thousands of fires rage around the country, half of them in the Amazon rainforest. Exacerbated by a severe drought, the fires threaten one of the world’s most crucial ecosystems and are consuming the Amazon’s vast stores of carbon, sending more of the damaging greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

2.4 million hectares (about 6 million acres) of forests, fields and pastures in the Amazon burned between June and August. There were more than 95,000 hot spots in the Amazon biome this year to Sept. 18, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, known as Inpe.

Historic rainfall inflicts chaotic floods across four continents

Severe rains bucketed down on central Europe, Africa, Shanghai and the US Carolinas this week, underscoring the extreme ways in which climate change is altering the weather.

Different meteorological phenomena are behind the series of storms, according to climate scientists, though they agree an underlying factor for the supercharged rainfall is global warming writ large. Research has shown that hotter air is capable of carrying more moisture and is more likely to cause intense precipitation.

Climate impacts on Amazon fire

Whether directly or indirectly, human activities are the root cause of fire in the Amazon.
In order for a fire to start anywhere, you need three things— favorable climatic conditions, a fuel source, and an ignition source. In the Amazon, each side of this “triangle of fire” has been exacerbated by warming temperatures and deforestation, creating flammable conditions that can allow fires to spread out of control deep into the forest once they are ignited.

Climate conditions

High temperature and dryness combine to create the right conditions for fires to spread through the Amazon. As global temperatures have risen, the Amazon region has become hotter and drier, more vulnerable to prolonged droughts and extreme climatic events. Most recently, a climate-driven drought spanning 2023 and 2024 has deeply impacted water levels in the forest— to the point of isolating riverside communities.

Wildfire danger days, or days considered hot and dry enough to increase the likelihood of fire, have become a much more common occurrence deeper in the Amazon, where previously it was just too wet to burn.

Fuel

Felled trees and dry vegetation form the fuel for more fires in the Amazon. How do the trees fall? Some are killed in extreme drought and previous fire, but many are intentionally cut, pushed over by bulldozers for conversion of forest to pasture land. Large-scale deforestation has been advancing into the Amazon for decades, fragmenting thick blocks of forest and replacing them with ranch or farm land. Scientists and activists have been pushing for an urgent stop in deforestation to achieve, among other benefits, a drop in fire numbers. However, despite slowly declining deforestation rates, fires are still increasing, pointing to another important piece of the puzzle – degradation.

When a forest is fragmented by deforestation, it degrades the vegetation that remains standing. Forests along the edges of clearings dry out and weaken, making them more susceptible to future burning. And burning weakens nearby forests yet again, creating more available fuel, setting off a chain of degradation.

Ignition

Ignition in the Amazon is almost entirely human caused— whether accidentally or intentionally. Ranch and farm operations both legally and illegally clearing Amazon rainforest use fire to burn away cut vegetation or prepare existing pasture land for other uses. With climate change creating hotter and drier conditions, and lengthening the dangerous dry season, any ignition becomes potentially risky, whether or not its use is legalized. Especially where forest edges have already been weakened.

However, a study led by Woodwell Climate Postdoctoral Researcher and fire ecologist Dr. Manoela Machado, found that long-term solutions to the Amazon’s fire crisis will require distinguishing between the complex uses of fire. One-size-fits-all fire bans, usually employed as emergency measures and not always strictly enforced, may reduce fire in the short term, but don’t adequately address the underlying reasons people have decided to burn the land.

Ending deforestation and supporting firefighters

Fire in the Amazon follows deforestation and degradation, namely from logging, fires, droughts and fragmentation. Climate change and human encroachment have worked in concert to foster a devastating annual burning regime in the Amazon rainforest that threatens one of the Earth’s most valuable mechanisms for keeping the planet cool.

Eliminating fire from the Amazon will require the elimination of deforestation and degradation sources, as well as the enforcement of strategic fire bans and support of firefighting brigades. Machado, has led several successful workshops with Indigenous fire brigades in Brazil, bringing together groups from across the country to learn about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology they can use to monitor and manage their own forests.

According to Machado, a big part of fire prevention happens in the off-season. Support for activities like community outreach, building fire breaks in collaboration with farmers, and technical assistance to replace legal use of fire, can all help reduce the prevalence of catastrophic fires when the dry-season comes around.

The Amazon is a massive place, and firefighting can be a dangerous job. Especially on the frontiers of deforestation, where land grabbing and illegal deforestation are common and fire fighters are often threatened to stay out of an area. Ultimately, government support, bolstered enforcement of deforestation laws, and viable alternative livelihoods have a major role to play in bringing down fires, alongside continued global efforts to curb climate change.

Permafrost Pathways’ recommendations for urgent congressional action

Rising temperatures across the Circumpolar North are catalyzing more severe and intense environmental hazards in the US-Arctic region. Among the most dangerous trends is thawing permafrost, i.e., the loss of continuously frozen ground that underlies roughly 38% of land surface in Alaska. As permafrost thaws, it destabilizes critical infrastructure, destroying homes, schools, roads, and public utilities. Compounding effects of flooding, erosion, and thaw-induced ground collapse pose imminent environmental threats for at least 144 Alaska Native communities. Permafrost thaw also holds global significance, as it contains an estimated 1.4 trillion tons of carbon, or roughly twice as much carbon as is currently in the Earth’s atmosphere. Without aggressive, near-term climate mitigation, resulting greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane) from permafrost thaw and increasingly intense wildfires in the Arctic-boreal region may be on par with the highest-emitting countries. Fortunately, Permafrost Pathways understands these challenges and is working to leverage the best available science to avoid worst climate scenarios and to advance equitable adaptation responses to permafrost thaw.

The policy recommendations linked to the right are informed by active collaboration with Arctic communities, scientific experts, youth leaders, and innovators in both the public and private sectors. They are intended to align with current US federal policies, including those named in the 2022 National Strategy for the Arctic Region and its Implementation Plan (2023), which identified Permafrost Pathways as a key partner in US government efforts to advance a more resilient and secure Arctic region.

Learn more on Permafrost Pathways’ website.