Earth Equity News

New Woods Hole Director Committed to Studying Climate's Effect on Oceans. By Billy Baker, BGlobe, June 16, 2008. "Susan Avery, 58, has been director of the [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution] since February… Her appointment was a landmark in two major ways: She is the first woman to hold the position of director in the institute's 78-year-history; and, though she's running one of the world's leading oceanographic research institutes, she is not an oceanographic scientist. Avery has spent the last 26 years landlocked in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado studying the atmosphere. This, according to Avery, is... a nod to the future, to a new century where the environment is going to be the chief issue in science, requiring a cross-disciplinary attack... 'When people think climate change, they think of the build-up of greenhouse gases, and it gets cast as an atmospheric issue. But the oceans are going to be absorbing a lot of it. The oceans are the memory of the climate system; the atmosphere is the messenger'... She wants to bring that big picture of environmental science into decisions on everything from freshwater and fisheries management to the role of oil and energy companies. And she thinks the time is right, that we've reached a tipping point of awareness on the interconnectedness of everything we do. 'There's a confluence that's coming together around the climate issue,' she said."