Wadhwa also noted biotechnology advances being applied to coral reef restoration that are showing capacity to increase recruitment of coral larvae, and efforts to identify more heat tolerant strains of kelp for future kelp forest restoration work being led by scientists across UC San Diego.
Beyond the lab, Wadhwa also noted a UC San Diego-led initiative that may give society the most hope in making collective progress on climate: education.
“UC San Diego pioneered a program called the Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement, which requires all first-year undergraduates, regardless of their major, to take an interdisciplinary course connected with climate change education, solutions or societal impacts,” said Wadhwa.
The program is the first of its kind at a major public university and the first within the University of California system.
“Students across all majors on campus leave the university equipped to understand and address climate change, which they can then apply to whatever field they enter, whether that’s urban planning, economics, engineering or communications,” said Wadhwa. ”Having more people that understand and care about this issue gives us more hands on deck working towards climate progress.”
Have questions about climate change research and education at UC San Diego? Visit https://climatechange.ucsd.edu/ to learn more.
Learn more about research and education at UC San Diego in: Climate Change