I spent Friday with the Vice Chancellors of Research. We met on the UC Irvine campus, my first visit to that campus. We talked a bit about an effort to aggregate all of the patents across UC and, using artificial intelligence, identify expired or abandoned patents with potential for revival. What I learned is that UC holds more patents than any other public institution. Given that UC is comprised of 10 campuses, 3 National labs, and UC ANR it makes perfect sense.

Eric Rignot, a professor at UC Irvine and ‘glaciologist,' talked to us about ice sheet melt and what it means. His presentation was fascinating. We learned that while the current rate of sea level rise is 1 meter/century, it could go as high as 4 meters/century due to the impact of ice sheets. Note that if sea level were to rise 4 meters, most of the airports on both U.S. coasts would be under water. I had heard some years ago that much of Greenland is now cultivated due to glacial loss. Dr. Rignot shared data indicating that the melt rate of Antarctica and mountain glaciers are only a bit less than that of Greenland and all rates are increasing. As the only continent I have not visited, I was unaware of how different western Antarctica is from the eastern side of Antarctica. The western side has extensive glacial loss. The eastern side, not long ago inaccessible, now shows signs of ‘warming.' The Totten Glacier, in eastern Antarctica, alone would cause a 3.9-meter increase in sea level should it melt. As a result, there is close attention paid to eastern Antarctica to monitor where the melt rate is relative to a ‘tipping point.' Dr. Rignot's comment that "every day that passes by with inaction will penalize us down the road" has stuck with me and seems to apply in many situations.

Now I am in Washington, D.C. again, attending the CARET/APLU meeting. Barry Dunn, President at South Dakota State University, quoted C.S. Lewis during his comments. The quote was “You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” That sentiment certainly applies to climate change. Dunn, a former Extension Specialist who happened to start as a professor in Animal Science at SDSU the same year I started as a professor and Extension Specialist at Iowa State, also in Animal Science, also talked about his fascination with kaleidoscopes because you can change the lens slightly and the view changes tremendously. I found that an interesting thought.

Following the meeting sessions, we headed to our UC-DC office to plan for the rest of the week. Afterward, Dean David Ackerly, from UC Berkeley, met with alum and gave a talk about his work, also related to climate change. It is shaping up to be both a busy and interesting week.

This week has many of the same agenda items on it as past weeks though that's not to say that there isn't progress. I am winding down conversations with candidates for the appointment as Assistant Vice Provost of the RECs and Cooperative Extension (2 appointments, total, each at about 10 hours per week). The individuals who will hold these appointments work under the direction of the Vice Provost – Research and Extension to provide support to the Vice Provost. Responsibilities are variable and likely to change, particularly after we onboard a new Vice Provost – Research and Extension. The Vice Provost - Research and Extension is the first point of contact for County Directors and REC directors as well as the direct supervisor of these groups. One of the candidates summed up the role well by stating that the Assistant Vice Provosts will have ‘responsibilities without authority'. The individual did not mean this in a negative light but to capture the relationship the Assistant Vice Provosts have with the Vice Provost and Directors. In fact, this relationship affords many benefits.

I had to carry forward my Strategic Plan update homework that I had hoped to complete over the weekend. While I know where to find the baseline data for progress metrics, I haven't actually procured it yet. I really need to get on that. There's only one metric in the plan that I am not comfortable with or certain that it will be meaningful. I've run into that before in trying to quantify my research and Extension program impacts so I know that I can't be sure if it's a reasonable metric until I give it a try. This, too, shall remain on the ‘to do' list.

February 7, 2018 seems a long ways away yet but there are already competing meetings for that date! Program Council is scheduled to meet. The California Farm Demonstration Network steering committee has identified that date as the preferred meeting date but unless something changes with Program Council, I won't make the steering committee meeting if held on Feb 7. Also taking place that day is a Climate Change in CE Workshop. The workshop is the result of an RREA grant that Susie Kocher (@UCsierraforest) led. In my previous academic life I would have attended and was part of a Midwest group that developed climate change materials for use by Extension professionals.

Faith Kerns (@frkearns) is a member of the Climate Change workgroup. Yesterday I heard about some of the extended media coverage Faith's articles for Bay Nature and The Conversation have had. Who would have expected Rolling Stone would quote a portion of the Bay Nature piece! And CBS News, too! Way to go Faith!

Time to move on to other things for the day and see what items from last week I can wrap up.