UCD student researchers had their work accepted to a major climate data science gathering, but federal cuts might make it impossible to attend.
By: Harlin/Hayley Steele, UCD Graduate Student
A group of young researchers are holding bake sales to raise funds that were lost in federal budget cuts.
The first “Bake Sale to Support Youth in Climate Science” was at the corner of Telegraph and Durant in Berkeley. Their goal was to raise funds to help them attend a major climate data science gathering.
The student research team is part of Davis Data Driven Change (D3C), a student-led data justice organization at UC Davis. For the last year, this group of student researchers has been working under the collaborative oversight of the Feminist Research Institute at UC Davis on self-guided projects to research factors that are currently left out of leading climate models, including:
- The emissions impact of war
- The emissions impact of income inequality
- The emissions impact of forced migration and displacement
- The emissions impact of having more youth involved in decision-making spaces (and yes, this absolutely does have an impact!)
None of these factors are currently accounted for in leading socio-economic climate models. Because of this, they are largely overlooked at leading climate policy talks.
A few weeks ago, the student researchers received incredible news: their research has been accepted to Scenarios Forum, a leading gathering for socio-economic climate modeling. The event is held July 16-18 at the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom.
Unfortunately, these student researchers have run into a major snag: amidst the chaos of funding cuts in recent months, including and especially the “DOGE cuts,” they have not been able to obtain institutional funding to support travel. What this means is that the team has about two weeks to raise nearly $26,000 to fund their travel for this conference.
If they’re able to attend, the team will be one of the youngest to present research at the gathering.
“Young people have the most at stake when it comes to climate change. Our voices need to be there,” Miguel Rezapour, a 22-year-old student researcher, said. “We are bringing up the emissions impacts of war, income inequity–and all these things that aren’t even in the models. Why aren’t these things in the models?”
Rezapour is one of nine student researchers from UC Davis who had their research accepted by the Scenarios Forum gathering.
The research team is composed of eight undergraduate students, and one graduate student mentor.
To learn more about these efforts and donate to the cause, visit the team’s GoFundMe page here.
