When Pedro DiNezio began studying El Niño and La Niña roughly 20 years ago, human-caused climate change was still a future problem. At that time, researchers spent much of their energy trying to show that humans were, in fact, influencing the world's climate.
Flash forward two decades, and climate change is no longer some far-off, eventual phenomenon-it's happening now. Communities and businesses are factoring climate change into their yearly, monthly and even weekly decisions.
Pedro DiNezio
Against this backdrop, climate scientists are starting to transition away from purely theoretical research and pivot toward more applied work and consulting. DiNezio, a CU Boulder associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, for example, is embarking on a new partnership with WTW, a global insurance broker and risk advisor-an exciting prospect for putting research into practice.
"I'm going through a career transformation right now because I'm more and more interested in solving problems in the here and now," says DiNezio. "Because we now know so much about the climate system and about the impact it could have on society, many of us in academia are feeling that it's time to act."
Resilience is key
As global temperatures continue to rise, world leaders are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whether their actions will be enough to stave off catastrophic warming remains to be seen. But, in the meantime, communities and businesses must prepare for and adapt to the unprecedented extremes caused by climate change.
Drought, heatwaves, wildfires, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and other ripple effects are already causing big problems-and scientists like DiNezio might be able to help solve them.
"We can't stop the drought and the heatwaves, but we can do things to become more resilient, so they don't affect us as badly-at least for a while," DiNezio says. "And hopefully we can win that time we need to stabilize the climate."
For example, research has linked hot weather with an increased risk of accidents and injuries in the workplace. Employees are more likely to suffer heat-related illnesses on hot days. But they're also more likely to be involved with other seemingly unrelated accidents, too.
From an ethical perspective, companies want to keep their workers safe and healthy. But, from a business perspective, they also want to keep costs down-and workers-compensation insurance is a major expense.
"We're only starting to learn the full extent of the impact of heatwaves and how we can mitigate them," says DiNezio. "This is having a huge impact on businesses. So, how do we prevent these accidents?"
As the climate shifts, supply chains are also becoming increasingly vulnerable. When vital waterways like the Panama Canal's Gatun Lake dry up during droughts, ships cannot reach their intended destinations on time. And those delays cost money.
"You cannot avoid these things, but at least you can know there's a risk and plan an alternative shipping route," DiNezio says.
Reinsurance companies are particularly interested in anticipating disasters because they already take a long-term, big-picture view of risk. While a company in one part of the world might be worried about drought and another might be focused on sea level rise, global reinsurance companies see what's happening around the world and connect the dots.
"Reinsurance companies look for our knowledge because their scale makes them more sensitive to the aggregated effect of climate change over large swaths of the world," says DiNezio. "They are some of the first businesses to think, 'How do we anticipate this new climate that is continually changing and prepare for it?'"
Why now?
Climate science is a relatively new field. But, in recent years, it's matured enough to allow researchers to make predictions that are applicable to communities and businesses.
"We are starting to see these climate events happening, we have the tools to better predict them, and the climate sector is recognizing this as a problem, as a need," says DiNezio. "As academics, we cannot ignore them because this is no longer a theoretical exercise."
Teaching has played an important role in DiNezio's transformation. After joining the CU Boulder faculty four years ago, DiNezio began teaching an introductory-level class on climate change for non-science majors.
Every semester, DiNezio updated the curriculum because the climate was changing so fast. That process has been a bit of a reality check.
"When you talk about it with students, especially non-science majors, they are interested in what effect this could have on their lives and their careers," says DiNezio. "You have to think about these things more concretely."
Concrete problems
DiNezio, like other climate scientists who are experimenting with consulting, is approaching this new career chapter with a mix of enthusiasm and anticipation.
"I'm diving into something that I haven't done before," DiNezio says. "Sometimes, I describe it to my friend like I'm doing another PhD...A lot of people in my field are going through this transformation and (it) is entirely new."
But, in some ways, DiNezio suspects solving real-world problems may be easier than solving theoretical ones. Either way, DiNezio is looking forward to the new challenge.
"When you move away from the purely academic, the problems become really concrete," DiNezio says. "It's really simple: How do you prevent heat deaths or help farmers mitigate drought? For me, the new thing is the action. The transformation is, how do we act with all this information about weather and climate? It's very different from the academic approach. Now, we have a goal."
