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Updates regarding science policy with an impact on Puerto Rico and ways for scientists to get involved.

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Call for climate actions in Puerto Rico

Submitted by Isabel Katsí Parés-Ramos on

Isabel Katsí Parés-Ramos's picture

Wallace Broecker, one of the first scientists to declare that polluting human actions caused climate change died recently. In 1975, Broecker embraced the term "global warming" in a publication for Science, where he showed that high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the use of fossil fuels increase the Earth's temperature. Puerto Rico is vulnerable to global warming, associated with extreme droughts and intense hurricanes in the Caribbean region. This is one of the findings described by the local and international scientists in the Caribbean chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). Almost 50 years after Broecker warned about the need to mitigate global warming, climate change is not a topic that is given sufficient priority in the political scene in Puerto Rico. This must change.

Statement by PR-SPAN to the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives of the United States

Submitted by Kevin Noel Ortiz Ceballos on

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Good afternoon, I am Mr. Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, an undergraduate student from the University of Puerto Rico Río, Piedras Campus and I appear in my capacity as ambassador of the Puerto Rico Science Policy Action Network (PR-SPAN). The PR-SPAN is an initiative created by the non-profit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico, which promotes the participation of scientists in the formulation and deliberation of public policies with impact in Puerto Rico, at the federal, state and local levels.

Ask your Professional Organization or Scientific Society to support strong governance and the autonomy and independence of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

Submitted by Zulmarie Perez Horta on

Zulmarie Perez Horta's picture

Have you already signed the petition as an individual? If not, click here to sign.  The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (PRIS) continues to weaken as an institution and needs the scientific community and friends of Puerto Rico to take action. We invite you to sign this petition and to recruit your professional organization or scientific society to do the same. We have created this form so that professional organizations and scientific societies can join us in defending strong governance for PRIS.

Puerto Rico at the mercy of climate change

Submitted by Isabel Katsí Parés-Ramos on

Isabel Katsí Parés-Ramos's picture

This is the first part of a series of two articles.

Global warming is no longer  a problem of the future, is already part of our everyday lives. A month ago, NASA released a report that found  the average temperature of the Earth's surface in 2018 was the fourth hottest in 140 years of records.

The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics continues to weaken

Submitted by Zulmarie Perez Horta and Carlos De Leon on 12 March 2019 - 10:50am

Zulmarie Perez Horta's picture

Dear members of the scientific community and friends of Puerto Rico,

We want to draw your attention and invite you to take action on an urgent public policy issue: the continued weakening of the governance of the Puerto Rican Institute of Statistics (PRIS). We invite you to sign and share the petition below.

SIGN THE PETITION!

Are you signing on behalf of a professional organization or scientific society? Click HERE.

Cleaning Vieques should not threaten its residents or the environment

Submitted by Luis Alexis Rodríguez Cruz on

Luis Alexis Rodríguez Cruz's picture

For more than 60 years, 75% of Vieques, an island municipality of Puerto Rico, were used by the US Navy as military practice grounds. Though the US forces left Vieques in 2003, after historical protests due to a detonation that killed a civilian, hundreds of acres of la Isla Nena are stilled polluted. Terrains are contaminated with undetonated munitions and bombs, as well as with toxic chemicals.

PR-SPAN participation in the ACS Science Advocacy Workshop

Submitted by Melissa Cristina Ortiz Rosario on

Melissa Cristina Ortiz Rosario's picture

On January 30 and 31 of 2019 the American Chemical Society, Puerto Rico Chapter (ACS-PR) held its first science advocacy workshop in the Capitol building of the Puerto Rico legislature. Approximately 30 scientists and students participated in this event, meant to help the chemistry community in Puerto Rico be more effective science advocates.

US federal government response to the hurricanes was larger and faster in Texas and Florida than in Puerto Rico.

Submitted by Carlos De Leon on

Carlos De Leon's picture

Researchers from the Department of Health Management and Policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in collaboration with the Department of Political Science from the University of Utah published a study quantifying and comparing the US federal disaster response to the 2017 hurricanes that affected Texas (Harvey), Florida (Irma) and Puerto Rico (Maria). They analyzed the response during the first 6 months after the hurricanes made landfall in the study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal BMJ Global Health.

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