Scientists4Future NL is an alliance of Dutch scientists striving for a more active role in the climate crisis. UT professor Arjen Hoekstra is one of the 1800 academics who have signed the alliance’s public statement. ‘We have been talking about climate change for thirty years, but too little is happening. I feel I need to speak up, because we simply don’t do enough.’
You might still remember the extremely hot week in July. Recent measurements by UT scientists show that, during that heat wave, forests in the Netherlands emitted CO2. ‘This is very rare. We have not seen this situation since we started measuring in 2006. But we have to be careful not to overinterpret these measurements,’ says ITC researcher Christiaan van der Tol.
‘We have to do something, or our kids will have nothing left. We need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere,’ says professor Albert van den Berg about his initiative for a new research programme on Negative Emission Technologies. The programme was officially kicked off yesterday during a symposium at the UT.
Maarten van Aalst is the new professor for ‘Spatial resilience for Disasters Risk Reduction’ at the Prinses Margriet Research Chair (ITC Faculty). ‘I want to look back and see that my work has made a real difference, that it reduced mortality and human suffering.’
Hurricane Florence is wreaking havoc in North and South Carolina, causing major flooding as we speak. For UT researcher Koen de Koning this represents a unique opportunity to ‘live test’ his hypothesis on how flood risk impacts the housing market and poverty in these U.S. states, where he’s conducted his research.
European project CATCH, with the UT as one of its partners, wants to prepare cities for climate change and resulting extreme weather events - by putting water in the center of urban design. It’s starting with seven pilot cities, where new climate adaptation measures are being tested. Enschede is one of them.
Cape Town is experiencing a severe water shortage. Despite strict water rations, the city is preparing for ‘Day Zero’, the day when the authorities turn off water for most of the city’s households. How did it come to this? We asked Arjen Hoekstra, Professor in Water Management at the University of Twente.
The traditional ceremony 'Opening Academic Programme' of the ITC Faculty was held yesterday in the Muziekcentrum in Enschede. This annual event might have been last of its kind.
Few scientists possess the gift of making an immediate and lasting impact. Yet, that is what atmospheric physicist Guus Velders has done. In October 2016, the UT alumnus saved the Kigali climate treaty with his quick calculations. And this did not go unnoticed; the journal Nature immediately listed him among the ten most influential scientists of that year.
Water is essential to all life on Earth, but some areas have fewer water supplies than others. ‘We need to know what resources there are, in order to use them efficiently,’ says Moiteela Lekula, who is researching groundwater storage in his home country of Botswana.
Find out more about the Honours Programmes the University of Twente offers. In this special edition by U-Today, we explore what it's like to be part of the well-oiled machine that helps students shoot for the stars.
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