Climate Change Institute - University of Maine

The University of Maine's Climate Change Institute (CCI) is an interdisciplinary research unit organized to conduct world-class research, graduate education, and environmental outreach focused on the variability of Earth's climate system, and on the interaction between humans and the natural world.  CCI has a 40 year long legacy of multi-disciplinary, high profile scientific contributions to the understanding of natural climate variability, human impact on climate, and the impact of climate change on humans and ecosystems. 

CCI scientists conduct climate change research around the globe from the deserts and highlands of Peru throughout the Andes, to the diminishing glaciers of Greenland onto the summit of Greenland, throughout the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, across the vast Antarctic continent, and to the rocky shores of Maine. CCI researchers have extensive field experience and expertise to tackle critical and complex issues related to climate change and human adaptations to changing climates. These issues are extremely challenging, but they are particularly well suited to the multi-disciplinary character of the Institute.

Physical and chemical climate change issues are deeply embedded within the fabric of local to global scale concerns over economy, health, and overall quality of life. CCI’s mission continues to evolve as its researchers probe further into the complexities and implications of climate change through:

Long-term Perspective in the form of records of past climate (ice cores, lacustrine cores, glacial deposits, human adaptation) from around the world.

Climate Prediction and Planning from local to global and long term to abrupt scales through highly detailed and innovative analysis of climate records within climate modeling perspectives.

Positive Policy Implications, such as environmental and renewable energy planning founded on sound science.

Technological Advances in environmental monitoring, processing and analyses of archives containing physical and chemical climate information, and cyberinfrastructure needed to interpret climate data.