What's New?

Gary Radloff, Policy Director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative (WBI), has joined SAGE. Gary comes to WBI and SAGE from his position as Policy Director for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Welcome, Gary!

Study Reveals Dynamic Wisconsin Climate, Past and Future. If the future scenarios being churned out by the world’s most sophisticated computer climate models are on the mark, big changes are in store for Wisconsin’s weather during the next century... Read the UW News Release. SAGE Professor Chris Kucharik is a part of this research team.
Press covereage: Channel 3000.com



Crop Calendar Dataset available. This dataset is the result of digitizing and georeferencing existing observations of crop planting and harvesting dates. Climate statistics were derived (e.g., the average temperature at which planting occurs in each region) by merging these crop calendar maps with monthly climatologies from CRU. view the Crop Calendar webpage.



Jonathan Patz fieldwork team establishes strong correlation between malaria mosquitoes and Amazon deforestation.
Read the UW Press release
Read the Journal article "Linking Deforestation to Malaria in the Amazon: Characterization of the Breeding Habitat of the Principal Malaria Vector, Anopheles darlingi

SAGE PhD Student David Zaks coauthors Deutsche Bank agriculture white paper, "Investing in Ariculture: Far-Reaching Challenge, Significant Opportunity. An Asset Management Perspective, June 2009". Read the UW Press Release; DB Climate Change Advisors (download the report)
Press Coverage: New York Times; Mongabay.com; Journal-Sentinal Online



Chris Kucharik's work was profiled in the April 2009 Focus on Energy Newsletter, which also reports Carol Barford's new grant, awarded earlier this year



Jonathan Patz gave the keynote address "Global Climate Change, Energy & Health: Foreboding Clouds & Silver Linings" at the 16th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine (May 12, 2009).

Congratulations 2009 Climate Leadership Challenge Winners!

Grand Prize $20,000: Cellulosic Biofuels - Using genetically engineered enzymes to increase the efficiency of biofuels (read the Badger Herald story announcing the winners)

Best State Solution $10,000: EcoStream - An environmentally friendly vending machine
Best National Solution $10,000: A Novel Method of Carbon Sequestration and Carbon Negative Power Production - A product that turns biomass into biochar and captures the created synthesis gas
Best International Solution $10,000: Solar Cycle - A product for developing nations that uses garbage to create a reflective material that is used in a solar cooking device and water purification system

The CLC competition was made possible through generous funding from the Global Stewards Society.

Prof. Tracey Holloway and Steve Vavrus, CCR, are interviewed for the April 16, 2009 Isthmus cover story, Hope for the Planet. "After years of sounding an alarm, some scientists are putting out a more optimistic message... We need to build greater emphasis on solutions, and the good news is, there are solutions all around us"... (read the article)



Prof. Jonathan Patz profiled in UW Foundation's Spring 2009 Insights publication. (read the article)







Prof. Jonathan Patz awarded an H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship. This award recognizes Jonathan's exceptional contributions to the University of Wisconsin and beyond to the worldwide scientific community, of which he is so well regarded. This program, funded by WARF in recognition of the leadership of the late WARF Trustee President, H.I. Romnes, is intended to recognize and support faculty for the quality, significance, and productivity of the nominee's research, as well as the quality and programmatic value of the nominee's teaching and service.

Recent Awards

David Zaks has been accepted in to the Santa Fe Institute Global Sustainability Summer School in Santa Fe, New Mexico from July 12 through July 25, 2009.

Erica Bickford has been selected to participate in the prestigious Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) at IIASA (International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) this year. IIASA is located outside of Vienna, Austria, and the YSSP is a highly competitive 3-month internship program with students working on interdisciplinary environmental research. Erica will be joining the Air Pollution and Economic Development project, closely connected to her Ph.D. research on transportation and air pollution. (4/09)

Claus Moberg won a $6000 Graduate Fellowship Award through the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium for his proposal to use NASA satellite data of air pollution to understand how atmospheric processes in mountainous regions affect air quality. (4/09)

Paul West was awarded the Laurel Clark Graduate Fellowship. The Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Graduate Fellowship Award was established by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium in 2004 in honor of Dr. Laurel Clark, Columbia Space Shuttle astronaut and resident of Wisconsin. The award is granted annually to a promising Wisconsin graduate student attending a Wisconsin Space Grant institution, who is pursuing studies in the fields of environmental or life sciences, and whose research has an aerospace component. Additionally, the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium seeks to support those students who personify the qualities of leadership, intellectual balance, and an ongoing commitment to improving the human condition that were the hallmarks of Dr. Clark's life. (3/09)

MS Student Anne Shudy Palmer won a scholarship to attend the "Conservation Capital in the Americas Conference" January 2009 in Valdivia, Chile.

PhD Student Sarah Olson received a full award to travel and attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans this winter to present her cutting-edge work on malaria in the Amazon.

PhD Student Maggie Grabow was awarded a full scholarship to attend the International EcoHealth Forum 2008, Dec 2008.

CHANGE Fellow Micah Hahn was awarded a full scholarship to attend the International EcoHealth Forum 2008, Dec 2008. 

Job Opportunities

None at this time

News Archive

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Spak! Scott has started a post-doc at the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) at the University of Iowa.


New Carbon Footprinting website launched. SAGE graduate student Anne Shudy Palmer has been working with MG&E and 1000 Friends of Wisconsin to develop a carbon footprinting web site that:
• is local to South Central Wisconsin
• lets you track your footprint over time
• automatically uploads your MGE energy data (if you want it to)
• facilitates sharing and collaboration
Visit CO2gether.org. Press coverage: The Capital Times
Download the Report: CO2gether: Creating a Local, Online, Climate Protection Tool and Community



SAGE helps in creation of Carbon Cycle and Habitat Diversity Trail at Riverland Conservancy’s Merrimac Preserve. SAGE Professor Chris Kucharik helped dedicate a new nature trail at Riverland Conservancy’s Merrimac Preserve, near Devil’s Lake State Park, in cooperation with Alliant Energy. Key participants at the dedication were Barbara Swan, company President of Wisconsin Power and Light, Kathy Lipp, Chief Environmental Officer for Alliant Energy, and Linda Lynch, Riverland Conservancy’s General Manager. Former SAGE and Nelson Institute graduate student Nic Jelinski (M.S. 2007) worked with staff at Riverland Conservancy to create educational signage to explain the diversity of habitats found on the preserve (including native prairie, oak savanna, wetland marshes, and a class 1 trout stream) and how they interact with the carbon cycle. The 1.8 mile Carbon Cycle and Habitat Diversity Trail was designed to be a self-guided tour of the landscape of the region, and to educate users on the connections between ecosystems and the carbon cycle across Wisconsin. This trail is one of three main trails that are found on the conservancy property near Merrimac. The trail is located at S6888 Highway 113 between Merrimac and Baraboo, and is about a 40-minute drive from the Madison area. (Oct 2008). (view photos; Alliant Energy press release)


Waterborne disease risk upped in Great Lakes. An Oct. 7, 2008, publication by Patz et al. in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports that extreme weather such as the monsoon-like rainfall events that occurred this spring will likely aggravate the risk for outbreaks of waterborne disease in the Great Lakes region. (read the UW press release; article )

SAGE students and faculty participated in a key regional meeting Sept. 29-Oct. 2, on climate change and health in the Amazon. The workshop was co-organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, along with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Professor Patz delivered the opening keynote presentation, and PhD candidate Sarah Olson presented her finding on climate variability and malaria in Amazonia. (view more photos of the meeting)


Congratulations to Dr. Holly Gibbs on her Ph.D.! Holly's work focuses on tropical deforestation and the drivers of expanding agricultural land in the tropics. Following up on this work, Holly will be starting a post-doc at Stanford, supported by a prestigious Smith Fellowship. Fortunately, we'll have Holly here at SAGE for another couple of months before she heads to the West.

New SAGE Director Appointed -- Prof Tracey Holloway. August 20, 2008. Prof. Tracey Holloway will serve as the new Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), leading the Center into its next phase of development and productivity. "This is an exciting opportunity," says Holloway, "SAGE has built a reputation for excellent research, teaching, and public outreach -- I am enthusiastic to continue this legacy and help the Center grow in new directions."  Holloway has been with SAGE since 2003, when she arrived at the University of Wisconsin--Madison as an Assistant Professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (she is also serves on the faculty of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the La Follette School of Public Affairs). Holloway earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2001, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Earth Institute of Columbia University from 2001-2003.


New gift for Research on Sustainable Public Health. SAGE has received a $240,000 gift from an anonymous donor directed towards research on environmental public health, the area of focus of Professor Jonathan Patz. Patz plans to leverage these funds to further build  a major initiative on Sustainable Public Health – Patz describes this as, "Health for today's populations without compromising natural resources needed for the health of future generations.(read more)


Foley now at University of Minnesota. Prof. Jon Foley, the founder and Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), has left the University of Wisconsin and is now the Director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota (August 2008) 


A 'red flag' for expanding biofuels in the tropics. Holly Gibbs et al. report that biofuels, by recycling atmospheric carbon, are a potential boon to the world's ailing climate. But efforts in the tropics to significantly expand biofuel production by replacing tropical forests with oil palm, sugarcane and other agricultural biofuels could, in fact, accelerate climate change. UW News. Press coverage: ScienceNOW; The Capital Times; ClimateArk.org; EcoEarth; physorg.com; wisbusiness.org
Listen to Holly's real media interview "The Dark Cloud of Debate Surrounding Biofuels" with CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio Show "As it Happens" (7/11/08). The interview starts after a brief description of other topics on the show.

Jonathan Patz participates in meeting with Dr. Rajendra K. Pachuari, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley along with other civic and business leaders to discuss the importance of mitigating climate change. The meeting was arranged by the Enviornmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC), July 2008.


Can Climate Change Make Us Sicker? – TIME Magazine. More than just the oceans or the wildlife, Dr. Jonathan Patz says that global warming can have a profound impact on human health read the article

SAGE student David Zaks, car divorcee, is featured as Community Car celebrates motorists 'divorcing' their cars. read the story


SAGE PhD student Scott Spak accepts post-doctoral position with the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) at the University of Iowa. Beginning in October, 2008, Scott will work with world-famous atmospheric chemist and modeler, Prof. Greg Carmichael.


SAGE post-doc Meiyun Lin awarded competitive support to attend the upcoming "Preparing for a Faculty Career" Workshop at the University of Oklahoma and to attend the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) meeting in France.


MS student Claus Moberg returns from American Meteorological Science Policy Colloquium in DC, and will be attending the NSF-sponsored "Debating Science" program and the Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Bootcamp (WEB) 2008 program later this year.


Chris Dresser completes MS degree in Environment & Resources, ARM, and TMP. Chris built and analyzed a GIS-based emissions model for evaluation of heavy-duty diesel vehicles on major Midwest freight routes. 


SAGE PhD student Sarah Olson wins Best Student Paper Award at the International Association of Landscape Ecology meeting in Madison, WI.


SAGE Partners with MG&E to Examine Climate Policies for Wisconsin. SAGE professor Greg Nemet and graduate student Andy Mendyk are working with Madison Gas and Electric to model and evaluate the implications of emerging climate policies for Wisconsin residents. Their work will focus on evaluating the impacts of a broad set of possible implementation configurations – the likelihoods of which are currently highly uncertain.


Two SAGE Alumni Join University of Minnesota Climate Change Team. Tracey Twine and Peter Snyder are new faculty members in the Dept of Soil, Water and Climate. read more


Jill Baumgartner, PhD student, receives UW Graduate Student Mentor Award through the Graduate School Collaborative and the Multicultural Graduate Network. This award recognizes Jill as someone who has demonstrated outstanding mentorship qualities while in graduate school.


Caitlin Littlefield wins a Nelson Institute sponsored scholarship to attend a series of innovative Journal of Facilitation and Collaboration workshops.


David Zaks, SAGE PhD student, wins Laurel Clark Memorial Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship is named in honor of astronaut Dr. Laurel Clark, a Wisconsin native, who perished in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.The fellowship recognizes exceptional graduate students from Wisconsin in the field of environmental or life sciences, who show strong leadership qualities, intellectual balance and commitment to improving the human condition.


SAGE student worker Isabella Lau and a friend win an Isthmus Green Day Challenge. They proposed an environmental community center ("Earth Center") that would be a place to re-establish our relationship to the earth and to each other through the discovery of common ground, the empowerment of individuals, and the sharing of stories. Jon Foley is a featured speaker at the Isthmus Green Day event to be held on April 26 at the Monona Terrace.


SAGE student Jill Baumgartner wins Fulbright Award, a highly competitive international study and exchange program that seeks to build intellectual and cultural relationships between the U.S. and other countries. Jill will be conducting epidemiology research on indoor air pollution and health in rural Yunnan, China.

Jonathan Patz Recognized in Madison Magazine as one of Madison's "Green Heroes" – 25 of the area's savviest, smartest, boldest, well-intentioned and hardest-working stewards of justice, humanity and the environment. read the article

SAGE-TNC-IBM Partnership Highlighted on World Water Day read the article

Increased ethanol production to worsen Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’. The rush in the United States to produce corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel will likely worsen pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and expand the annual "dead zone" that kills fish and other aquatic life, according to new research by Chris Kucharik and former SAGE graduate student Simon Donner (now at the University of British Columbia). read the UW Press Release
Press coverage: UW News; CBC News; TIME; WPR - search for "Ethanol Boom May Be Harming Major Waterways Down South" to listen to real media interview; NPR net radio - real media clip; The Capital Times, Journal-Sentinel online

SAGE grad students serve as "climate change advisors" for the latest issue of Yes! Magazine that focuses on climate change solutions. Current student David Zaks, and former SAGE grad students Chad Monfreda, Julie Vano, and Simon Donner participated. view the online magazine

SAGE PhD candidate Matt Johnston's paper on international biodiesel production wins Editor's Choice Award. read more

Earlier plantings underlie yield gains in northern corn belt. U.S. farmers plant corn much earlier today than ever before and it seems to be paying off, at least in the north. A new study by SAGE Scientist Chris Kucharik finds that earlier plantings could account for up to half of the yield gains seen in some parts of the northern Corn Belt since the late 1970s. read the UW Press Release

Holly Gibbs' paper, "Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDD a reality" selected as part of Environmental Research Letters Best of 2007. The "Best of 2007" is a mixture of Perspectives and Letters that best represent the high quality and breadth of the contributions that were published last year in ERL, as chosen by the Editorial Board, guest editors and publishing team. read more

Decades of Neglect in Energy Research Will Be Hard to Reverse. In the report, “Big Oil U.,” the Center for Science in the Public Interest describes some striking trends in overall spending for such studies. The Report relied on Greg Nemet's data reported last year in the journal Energy Policy (Nemet, G.F. and D.M. Kammen (2007) “U.S. energy R&D: declining investment, increasing need, and the feasibility of expansion” Energy Policy 35(1): 746-755. Available through Science Direct.. read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

UW-Madison joins largest climate change teach-in in U.S. history. The focus is on global warming solutions with the aim of preparing millions of students to become leaders in responding to the challenge. Jon Foley and Jonathan Patz presented talks. read more

Patz participates in Washington Post on-line chat "Science: How Climate Change Impacts Your Health". read the questions and comments

Foreign ozone emissions lower U.S. air quality. Study led by Tracey Holloway finds that up to 15% of U.S. air pollution comes from Asian and European sources. read the UW-Madison press release, Listen to a Radio interview on Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Buisiness.com

SAGE team members participate in United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. Jonathan Patz and Holly Gibbs gave presentations. Over 180 nations participated in this event (Dec 2007) conference website

Experts promote the global warming diet. America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time. read the CNN article

Health toll of climate change seen as ethical crisis. The public health costs of global climate change are likely to be the greatest in those parts of the world that have contributed least to the problem, posing a significant ethical dilemma for the developed world, according to a study in EcoHealth by SAGE researchers Patz, Gibbs, and Foley.
Coverage: UW news article, New York Times Dot Earth, UPI, Mother Jones News, Wisconsin State Journal
Listen to the Scientific American "Ethics of Climate Change" Nov 07: Science Talk Podcast

SAGE faculty contribute to "Our Changing Planet" book.  Jon Foley, Annemarie Schneider and Mutlu Ozdogan have all contributed chapters to a new book, Our Changing Planet, which illustrates how our global environment is changing, based on views from satellites.  





Jonathan Patz Interviewed by ABC News. SAGE's Jonathan Patz weighs in on whether White House officials 'muzzled' important scientific research on the links between climate change and human health. Read the Article, Watch the video; Press coverage: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

SAGE Researchers Examine World’s Potential to Produce Biodiesel. Seeking to understand which nations are best positioned today to enter the burgeoning biodiesel market, Matt Johnston and Dr. Tracey Holloway ranked 226 countries according to their potential to make large volumes of biodiesel at low cost. Their article "A Global Comparison of National Biodiesel Production Potentials " appeared in the Oct. 24 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. Read more on the SAGE Energy page and the UW News article.
More coverage: UPI, Wired

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore Awarded 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. SAGE's Jonathan Patz served on the panel. Read more

SAGE's Jonathan Patz featured in UW Medical School Magazine. “As Temperatures Rise, Global Health Declines” declares the cover of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s latest Quarterly magazine, which profiles the work of Associate Professor Jonathan Patz in a feature article on ecology and public health. Read the article

SAGE Welcomes 3 New Faculty Members Dr. Annemarie Schneider, Dr. Mutlu Ozdogan, and Dr. Gregory Nemet. Read more

SAGE Scientist Chris Kucharik participates in the Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) conference. Wisconsin state legislators, environmental experts, policy experts, National Farmers Union (NFU) staff, WFU members, and the public gathered for in-depth discussions on environmental and health care issues.
Read the news release (August 2007).

SAGE Teams with IBM and The Nature Conservancy on Global Rivers Project to conserve some of the world's great rivers by meshing extraordinary computing power and science-driven conservation. read the press release; Madison.com

Governor Announces Global Warming Task Force and Office of Energy Independence. The global warming task force will be comprised of businesses, industry, environmental organizations, local governments, and private citizens. This new effort will be charged with developing a state plan of action to explore state and local solutions to global warming.Jon Foley will be on the Task Force. The Office on Energy Independence will coordinate the state’s efforts to grow Wisconsin’s bio and renewable economies and advise the Governor and cabinet agencies on ways to meet the goals of Wisconsin’s “Declaration of Energy Independence” . read the press release

State Senate Testimony, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
Jon Foley, presented "News from a Warming Planet: Recent science and policy issues from Wisconsin" April 2007

Jonathan Patz, participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The second part of its Four Assessment Report series, "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" was issued April 6, 2007. Patz is a lead author of one of the report’s chapters. The international team of authors warned that human-generated warming is already making oceans more acidic and parched regions even drier. 20-30% of the world's species may disappear if the world warms another 2.7 to 4.5° F. Such warming could intensity ozone air pollution in the US and cause many diseases to increase around the globe. Read some of the press articles: Washington Post; Boston.com; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Rocky Mountain News; USA Today; Daily Camera; Salt Lake Tribune; nature.com; Chronicle of Higher Education; The Times-Picayune; SFGate

Study: Earlier crop plantings may curb future yields. In an ongoing bid to grow more corn, farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt are planting seeds much earlier today than they did 30 years ago, a new study has found. read the UW news article on Chris Kucharik's recent research

SAGE students contribute to WorldChanging.com weblog. David Zaks and Chad Monfreda recently became contributors to WorldChanging.com, a weblog that discusses “tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.”  Worldchanging has featured the research at SAGE in the past (Atlas of the Biosphere, agriculture's global footprint, The Earth Collaboratory, deforestation and malaria, and global health) and reports on many topics of interest to the SAGE community such as alternative energy, green design, global environmental politics, pollution monitoring, and general issues of sustainability. Chad and David are responsible for covering the topics of sustainability science and the intersection of policy and science. Some of their posts: The Nano Café; Science and Sustainable Rebuilding; Protecting the Environment, Protecting Our Health; Nanotechnology for Clean Water; Setting the Ecological Agenda; Green Water and Sustainable Agriculture; Ecology for Transformation; The Access Praxis; ATEAM: Mr.T takes on ecosystems services; Interview with Jeff Christian; Interview with Kerry Emanuel

SAGE Awarded $3.4 Million NSF Graduate Training Grant. The Nelson Institute's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program will involve 10 faculty members in diverse departments ranging from atmospheric and oceanic sciences to sociology. The program will seek to interweave natural and social sciences to better understand the vulnerabilities and resilience of human communities facing complex environmental hazards such as global climate change. read the UW press release describing the two recently-awarded IGERT grants on campus

New Energy Institute takes shape on campus. SAGE is a key player in the development of The UW Energy Institute, an initiative on campus to collaborate in educational and research activities, build synergism and increase the national recognition of the energy research accomplished at this university. Started as informal discussions in Summer, 2005, the UW Energy Institute now coordinates a weekly seminar series, provides updates on energy research discoveries on campus, and is active in building the Nelson Institute's Energy Analysis and Policy Certificate Program. Tracey Holloway, hired under the Energy Science and Policy Cluster Initiative, serves on the Energy Institute Governance Committee.

The First Biennial EcoHealth Conference: Forging Collaboration Between Health and Ecology was held October 7th-10th 2006 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meeting Theme: Promoting Global Health - Sustaining Natural Resources read more at the conference website
Press coverage: Wisconsin State Journal; Wisconsin Public Radio

Why Files features SAGE Science.  The award-winning "Why Files" on-line science magazine (whyfiles.org) features work from SAGE in their special 2006 Earth Day posting.  In their report, the Why Files discuss the potential for "tipping points" in the global environment with Prof. Jon Foley, and other scientists at the 2006 AAAS Meeting.

As Amazon's Tree Line Recedes, Malaria-Wielding Mosquitoes Buzz In "By dramatically changing the landscape, we are tipping the balance in a way that is increasing the risk of malaria transmission," says senior author Jonathan Patz. "This is one of the most detailed quantitative field studies in the Amazon that directly addresses the potential link between deforestation and malaria." UW Press release
Press coverage: Washington Post, NPR, World Changing

SAGE Maps Reveal Human Footprint on Earth. SAGE researchers, Navin Ramankutty, Amato Evan, and Chad Monfreda are tracking the changing patterns of agricultural land use around the world, including a look at related factors such as global crop yields and fertilizer use. Distilling that information into computer-generated maps, the scientists will present their early findings during the fall meeting (Dec. 5-9, 2005) of the American Geophysical Union. UW News release; audio interview with Navin Ramankutty on Wisconsin Public Radio (Real Player required); video segment of Navin Ramankutty on WISC-TV Channel 3, Madison; additional press coverage: UPI, National Geographic, The Guardian

Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health. Ironically, regions of Earth that contribute least to global warming are the most vulnerable to death and disease that higher temperatures can bring, says Jonathan Patz in the 17 Nov 2005 issue of Nature. (Patz will chair a related international conference – EcoHealth ONE – at UW–Madison in Oct 2006). Abtract; full article (subscription required); Nature podcast; UW news release and images; Additional press coverage: Washington Post; Reuters; UPI

SAGE Global Land Use Data Website Now Online Scientists at SAGE have developed global databases of land cover and land use. These data sets are now available from a new website. They describe the geographic patterns of the world’s croplands, grazing lands, urban areas, and natural vegetation. The website also includes other popular data such as human population density. The new website, developed by Navin Ramankutty and Seth Price, provides easy access to the land use data in both tabular format (for countries, states, etc. of the world) as well as in map form. The site allows the user to manipulate the data to suit their own specific requirements, and download them in several different formats.

SAGE River Discharge Database Website offers monthly mean river discharge data for over 3500 sites worldwide. The data sources are RivDis2.0, the United States Geological Survey, Brazilian National Department of Water and Electrical Energy, and HYDAT-Environment Canada. The period of record for each station is variable, from 3 years to greater than 100. All data is in m3/s.

SAGE Soil Carbon & Nitrogen Data Website Scientists at SAGE have initiated long-term soil sampling and monitoring of agricultural land across southcentral Wisconsin. Soil carbon, nitrogen, bulk density and other assorted data on land-use history are available via this database.

SAGE Scientists Featured in HBO Documentary.  SAGE faculty members Jonathan Patz and Jon Foley were featured in an HBO documentary "Too Hot Not To Handle" that aired on April 22nd, 2006.

Nature Conservancy Researcher Highlights Benefits of Great River Systems at International Conference. Nature Conservancy researcher and SAGE grad student Paul West showed how six of the world’s great river systems benefit people by putting food on the table, moderating the weather, slowing down climate change and regulating flooding during a presentation at the International Conference on Rivers and Civilization in La Crosse, WI. (June 2006)

Rate of African Forest Loss Underestimated: scientist - SAGE PhD candidate Holly Gibbs was interviewed at a Conservation International conference in Madagascar. (Reuters, June 2006)

New Maps Reveal Human Footprint on Earth - UW News release of Navin Ramkutty's work on global land use and land cover (UW News, 5 Dec 2005) (additional press coverage: UPI, National Geographic, The Guardian, WebIndia, EurekAlert, Innovations Report, Sydney Morning Herald, World Changing, The Repubblica, The Hindu, Taipei Times, Common Dreams, Mongabay, Biology News, NewKerala, Newswise, Minjok, Farmers Weekly Interactive, Science Daily, WBAY-TV, Live Science, Truth Out, Channel3000

Climate Shift Tied To 150,000 Fatalities - Piece in the Washington Post about Patz et al. 17 Nov Nature article "Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health". Earth's warming climate is estimated to contribute to more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses each year, according to the World Health Organization, a toll that could double by 2030... (Washington Post, Nov 17, 2005) (additional press coverage: Washington Post, Reuters, UPI, UW news release, The Independent; Guardian Unlimited, AllAfrica, Belfast Telegraph, Beloit Daily News, Common Dreams News Center, Grist Magazine, DrKoop, HealthCentral, Journal Sentinal Online, Planet Ark, SciDev Net, Monsters and Critics)

Listen to an Earthwatch Radio story featuring Jon Foley discussing landuse decisions (Earthwatch Radio, Sept 2005)

World Land Use Seen as Top Environmental Issue - UW News release of Foley et al. Science article "Global Consequences of Landuse" (July 21,2005)

Hazy Health Hazards - Jonathan Patz is an environmental health physician at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studies the impacts of climate change on human health, and he says people are likely to have more problems with smog as the Earth grows warmer. (Earth Watch Radio, July 2005)

Climate Change to Bring a Wave of New Health Risks - Jonathan Patz Feb 2005 presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Additional press coverage: MSNBC, The Capital Times, Madison, WI, The Independent Online Edition, Scripps Howard News Service

Five Future Eco-leaders under 40 - Jonathan Foley is featured in the March 2005 issue of Plenty Magazine

SAGE Contributed to WWF's 2004 Living Planet Report which is the WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. View some animations put together by SAGE Graduate Student, Chad Monfreda, showing the changes in the world's ecological footprints over time.

SAGE's Atlas of the Biosphere Featured by WorldChanging.Org, (Oct 30, 2004)

As Humans Alter Land, Infectious Diseases Follow. As people remake the world's landscapes, cutting forests, draining wetlands, building roads and dams, and pushing the margins of cities ever outward, infectious diseases are gaining new toeholds, cropping up in new places and new hosts, and posing an ever-increasing risk to human and animal health. (UW-Madison News, July 2004)

Field of Dreams. Carbon farming could help solve golbal warming and provide profits for farmers - cover story article appeared in Wisconsin Agriculturist magazine, Feb 2004 (and our own Kim Nicholas Cahill was featured on the cover with field equipment)

Sustain Dane put the Spotlight on Chris Kucharik's prairie research. Sustain Dane is a Madison, WI based non-profit organization dedicated to creating a community that deeply enjoys, cares for and is sustained by its unique environment.

Prairie research at the roots of environmental health - Emily Carlson interviewed Chris Kucharik about his prairie restoration research at the UW Arboretum (UW-Madison News, Oct 2003). A variation of this article appeared in UW-Madison's Alumni Magazine, On Wisconsin, Fall 2003 (pdf 1.4 MB)

•National Geographic's Map Drawn from UW-Madison Work (UW-Madison News Sept 2002). Visit the UW-Madison News site to download a 300dpi eps version of this map

•What's Up with US Gluttany? Rob Zaleski interviews Jon Foley (Capital Times, Madison Sept 2003)

•Should We Buy Biomass? Dr. Chris Kucharik talks about biomass, switchgrass, and Carbon cycling (The Why Files Science Behind the News, UW-Madison, Aug 2002)

•Switchgrass: Is this simple prairie grass a panacea for the world? One of Dr. Chris Kucharik's research projects was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal (Aug 2002) 11.4 MB pdf

•Amazon Basin Can Be a Carbon Source - Recent study by Drs. Aurélie Botta, Navin Ramankutty, and Jon Foley was highlighted (Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, Edie)

•Practicing What He Teaches - an update on the Foley family (UW Alumni News)

•Forest Management May Mitigate Global Warming - Dr. Carol Barford's research (UW-Madison News)

•Computer Lab on Wheels - SAGE was one of the first two departments on campus to deploy a wireless computer classroom (DOIT Technology Newsletter)

•Change Courts Ecosystem Catastrophe - Subjected to decades of gradual change by humans, many of the world's natural ecosystems - from coral reefs and tropical forests to northern lakes and forests - appear susceptible to sudden catastrophic ecological change (UW-Madison News)

•World Land Database Charts Troubling Course - Over the past 300 years, in an ever-accelerating process, humans have reshaped the terrestrial surface of the Earth. In doing so, humanity has scripted a scenario of global environmental change whose impacts promise to be at least as severe as global climate change... (NASA Earth Observatory)

•Africa's Lake Chad is Disappearing - Africa's Lake Chad, once one of the continent's largest bodies of fresh water, has shriveled to a ghost of a great lake (CNN)

•Great Lakes 'Seasons' May Reflect A Warming Trend - Scrutinizing a 139-year record of Great Lakes water levels, a UW-Madison scientist has discovered a dramatic shift in the seasonal changes in water levels on the Great Lakes...

•Green House - For many of us, the keys to turning down the earth's thermostat can seem as hazy as a distant cloud. But not the Foley family, for whom the battle against global warming starts at home... (Audubon Magazine)

•The Brothers Foley Develop A Sense Of Humus - Jon and David Foley work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (The Global Citizen)

•A Cimate Scientist Takes His Computer Model Seriously - Jon Foley makes computer models to study what might happen if the human economy continues to emit greenhouse gases. Like hundreds of other climate scientists, he is deeply worried about global warming. Unlike most scientists, he carries that worry into his personal life... (The Global Citizen)

•Global Warming: Desperately Seeking Stability (UW-Madison's Why Files)

•Landscape Changes May Alter Cimate (CNN)

•Forecasting the Ebb and Flow of a Rogue Mosquito (UW-Madison's Wisconsin Week)