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31 MAY 2019 • VOL 364 ISSUE 6443 843SCIENCE sciencemag.org

Climate change is altering ocean ecosystems and impacting Earth’s

land surfaces. Yet strategies to address such challenges largely

focus on land activities when broader responses offer more power-

ful solutions, said marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco during a lecture

at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 44th

Science & Technology Policy Forum.

“We can’t really think about climate solutions without including

the ocean, and that’s true on both the mitigation and the adapta-

tion front,” Lubchenco said in her Gilbert S. Omenn Grand Chal-

lenges Address. “The opportunity here is not to only address climate

change—pretty big deal in and of itself—but to also simultaneously

be able to focus on food security, resilience of coastal communities,

and abundance of wildlife.”

Lubchenco recited the extensive benefits Earth’s oceans deliver

and walked through threats now facing the oceans that cover 71% of

the planet’s surface during her 3 May lecture at AAAS’s headquar-

ters in Washington, D.C.

The speech served as a bookend to one given by Ernest J. Moniz

at the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Forum on 2 May that called

for energy technology innovation, coalition building, and implemen-

tation of his plan to curb climate change. Moniz, chief executive

officer of the Energy Futures Initiative, former Energy Department

secretary, and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, presented the 2019 William D. Carey Lecture in recogni-

tion of significant contributions to science and the articulation of

public policy issues.

Drawing from an array of scientific disciplines, Lubchenco and

Moniz each pointed to the effectiveness of multidisciplinary scientific

approaches and collaborative responses to climate change, including

those that reach into business and policy arenas, perspectives that

displayed core elements of the Science & Technology Policy Forum’s

“Strengthening Science and Its Benefits to Society” theme.

In building a verbal bridge between transformations facing the

world’s land surfaces and those confronting the oceans, Lubchenco

said that success dealing with climate change can only be accom-

plished by taking on the risks to land and the oceans.

“The problems in the oceans are actually really important and

more important than most people understand for their own health,

prosperity, and well-being,” she said. “Such degradation threatens the

most vulnerable people on the globe, economic prosperity, quality of

life, opportunities for everyone, to say nothing of the well-being of the

oceans and its life-forms.”

Already, the oceans are warming, growing more acidic, holding less

oxygen, rising due to higher water temperatures, generating more

storms, producing fewer fish stocks, and becoming more polluted

from plastics—factors depleting and disrupting the oceans, she said.

At risk are the beneficial powers of the oceans: the production of

more than half the planet’s oxygen, absorption of more than 90% of

excess heat entrapped by greenhouse gas emissions, and absorp-

tion of almost half the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities.

Such repercussions, she said, endanger coastal habitats and ocean

creatures from wetlands to whales.

Restoring rapidly disappearing mangrove forests, tidal marshes,

and seagrass meadows and protecting coastal areas—which touch

78% of the world’s countries—can play an active role in eliminating

greenhouse gas emissions, said Lubchenco. Over a decade and a

half beginning in 2000, for instance, the deforestation of mangrove

ecosystems, among the best carbon sequestration systems, resulted

in the release of 122 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

The effectiveness of ocean “biological pumps” that move carbon

around and store it on the ocean floor, due to such things as the

submersion of whale carcasses, is weakening. Restoring whale popu-

lations could rebuild the ability of oceans to absorb some 160,000

tons of carbon each year, said Lubchenco.

More scientific research is needed to understand “significant

unknowns” and reveal the full potential of the oceans to contribute

to climate adaptations and mitigation approaches, said Lubchenco,

even as some activities are already under way.

Revamping global fisheries responsible for releasing 170 million

tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2011 and overhauling

the shipping industry responsible for 2.6% of the world’s carbon

emissions in 2016 would deliver significant benefits. Adapting fisher-

ies would expand seafood yields by 40%, increase ocean fish stocks

by 5%, and boost industry economic gains by 30%, benefits that

would contribute to climate change responses, said Lubchenco.

“I would suggest to you that it’s time for all of us to, pardon the pun,

Scientific leaders explore pathways to climate solutions Ecologist Jane Lubchenco and nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz offer ways forward from land and sea

By Anne Q. Hoy

Destruction of mangrove forests spews millions of tons of carbon into the air.

AAAS NEWS & NOTES

Published by AAAS

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844 31 MAY 2019 • VOL 364 ISSUE 6443 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

seas the day and embrace the potential for co-benefits of tackling

climate change and ocean health together,” she said.

With a focus on energy innovations, Moniz called for adoption

of low-carbon electricity generation systems, including advanced

nuclear technologies, implementation of energy efficiency prac-

tices across economic sectors, and transformative carbon capture

and storage techniques. Such approaches, he said, need to be part

of a viable climate change response plan.

Moniz proposes solutions that recognize the diversity of

regional energy systems and implement energy efficiency across

sectors of transportation, industry, electricity, buildings, and ag-

riculture. Regional differences in how power is generated, he said,

ticking off natural gas, coal, nuclear, solar, hydroelectric, and wind

power systems, and the infrastructures built around such systems

require “tailored solutions that account for unique challenges and

opportunities in each subsector.”

Moniz summarized what he calls the “Green Real Deal” that

he first proposed in a March opinion piece co-written with Andy

Karsner, a former George W. Bush energy official, calling for a “wise

and just transition to a low-carbon economy, moving as fast as it is

technically and socially possible.”

The approach would require increased energy efficiency across

sectors, a low-carbon electricity system, and forging of coalitions

that include energy companies, industry disruptors, military rep-

resentatives, and other players who remain pragmatic and avoid

either end of the political spectrum. Moniz noted that the proposal

echoes President Barack Obama’s energy policies, which empha-

sized practical solutions and innovation.

Drawing a link between the earlier climate proposal backed by

U.S. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY) and U.S. Sen.

Ed Markey (D–MA) and his own approach, Moniz said in his lecture

that the lawmakers’ proposal “is fundamentally the statement of

one important fact… And that is that in pursuing low carbon, we

pursue social equity at the same time.”

At one point, Moniz returned to an introductory comment by

AAAS Chief Executive Officer Rush Holt in which he noted that

President Donald Trump had withdrawn the United States from

the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, a decision

announced on 1 June 2017.

“We’re still in Paris,” Moniz said. “Technically, we are not out until

the day after the next presidential election. So we will see what

happens there.”

The withdrawal decision, Moniz said, elicited “striking reactions”

from governors, mayors, and “well over a thousand businesspeople

who said, ‘Look, we’re staying the course, possibly even upping the

ante in terms of going to low carbon.’”

While expressing confidence that the Paris goals can be met,

Moniz acknowledged that it will be expensive and require “a home

run” by each economic sector.

He also pointed to the power of other factors outlined in a

recent opinion piece he co-wrote with John Kerry, former secretary

of state and Massachusetts senator, in recognition of Earth Day.

The piece looked back at the first Earth Day in 1970, a demon-

stration that marshaled a dismayed public demanding legisla-

tive action to clean up the nation’s then-battered air, water, and

environmental resources. The event contributed to the enactment

of landmark environmental laws.

“Americans in a certain sense mobilized and got the message…

to the political sphere that there was going to be accountability,”

Moniz said. “There was political accountability, the people were fed

up, it was time to address these issues.”

Three universities are embarking on a program designed to rec-

ognize effective institutional efforts to attract, retain, and advance

underrepresented students and faculty engaged in science, technol-

ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Boston University; the University of California, Davis; and the Uni-

versity of Massachusetts Lowell have been selected by the American

Association for the Advancement of Science as the first institutional

awardees in the SEA Change program, an ambitious effort to solve a

longstanding problem.

Joyce Wong, professor of biomedical engineering and materials

science and engineering at Boston University and the director of the

university’s ARROWS (Advance, Recruit, Retain & Organize Women

in STEM) program, said that underrepresentation of women and

minorities in the sciences has long been apparent.

“Even if it’s not well appreciated, there are definite institutional

barriers or cultural norms that we need to recognize” that have pre-

vented potential talent from pursuing and persevering in STEM, said

Wong, who led her university’s participation in SEA Change.

SEA Change, short for STEM Equity Achievement, aims to expand

the talent pool for the STEM workforce by calling on colleges and

universities to take steps to identify and remove barriers to diversity,

equity, and inclusion in STEM.

The nation is facing grand challenges that require scientific exper-

tise, Wong said. Addressing these complex issues “requires all talent

to be on board, and we simply can’t afford to lose any talent.”

Shirley Malcom, AAAS’s senior adviser and director of SEA Change,

said in 9 May testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Science,

Space, and Technology that the initiative will offer pathways previously

unpaved for those from all backgrounds to pursue STEM.

“How do we ensure a steady flow of talent for STEM while also

responding to the larger need for a workforce and citizenry with

knowledge and skills to address emerging challenges and opportuni-

ties? We can only do this by expanding that pool of talent, tapping

into the vast well of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities

currently underrepresented in STEM,” Malcom said.

SEA Change organizers emphasize that it differs from intervention

programs that step in on behalf of an individual. Instead, the voluntary

SEA Change program supports and recognizes institutions as they

transform their policies and practices to ensure that all can thrive.

Academic institutions create their own goals for inclusion under SEA Change.

AAAS NEWS & NOTES

SEA Change honors diversity efforts by universities AAAS program aims to inspire institutions

nationwide to make transformative changes

By Andrea Korte

Published by AAAS

on June 5, 2020

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