Climate change is an urgent environmental challenge for the coming decades, and many of the expected impacts in Utah relate to snow. At the same time Utah’s population surges, climate change is predicted to alter the Wasatch Front’s patterns of snowfall and melt, with implications for recreation and water resources. How is this local case a model for global climate transformation? How can Utah communities model resilience for communities in Europe, Asia and South America? What can Utah learn from the changing snowpacks in the Himalayas, Alps and Andes? Past discussions of climate change have pushed impacts out to the year 2100 and beyond – snow shows climate change is affecting Utah now.

This Praxis Lab will look closely at the idea of the Anthropocene, at the concept of Resilience, and at the science and politics of climate change. This group will focus on local snowfall’s economic, social and wildlife consequences. Our Praxis Lab will develop a participatory research project to share our conclusions and influence public policy and perception in our community.

Praxis Faculty

Court Strong, Ph.D.
Dr. Court Strong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah. He is an expert in the simulation and analysis of climate, including changes in mountain snowpack. He led high resolution atmospheric modeling for two National Science Foundation grants, totaling $25M, focused on climate and water resources. Dr. Strong is recipient of university and college level teaching awards, has authored 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and has delivered more than 30 invited or keynote talks on climate. Prior to entering graduate school, he worked as an on-camera meteorologist for network television affiliates in three states.

Dr. Strong earned his doctorate in environmental sciences from University of Virginia.

Jeffrey M. McCarthy, Ph.D.
Dr. McCarthy is the Director of Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah. He has been a Fulbright fellow, a Mellon Fellow to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, and he has held research fellowships to the National Humanities Center, the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Edinburgh University. Dr. McCarthy has written many academic articles and book chapters as well as multiple essays for climbing magazines. His books include Contact: Mountain Climbing and Environmental Thinking (University of Nevada Press, 2008) Green Modernism: Nature and the English Novel, 1900-1930 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and Conrad & Nature: New Essays (Routledge, forthcoming). Here is a link to Dr. McCarthy’s new book, Conrad and Nature.

Dr. McCarthy earned his doctorate in English from University of Oregon.