Focus Climate Change Website whrc.org | Area served Global Founded 1985 | |
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Slogan "For the Future of the Earth" Headquarters Massachusetts, United States Motto "For the Future of the Earth" Similar Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanogr, Environmental Defense Fund, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Union of Concerned Scientists | ||
The Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) is a scientific research organization that studies climate change, land use change, soils, wetlands, and forests. WHRC was named the world's top climate change think tank for 2013, 2014, and 2015 by the International Center for Climate Governance.
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The Center conducts research throughout the Amazon, the Arctic, central Africa, and North America. WHRC collaborates with a wide variety of partners to understand the causes and impacts of climate change and to implement more science-based policies.
Mission
WHRC's mission is to advance scientific discovery and seek science-based solutions for the world’s environmental and economic challenges through research and education.
History
The Woods Hole Research Center was established in 1985 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts by George Woodwell. WHRC was one of the first organizations dedicated to fighting global climate change and Woodwell testified to Congress in 1986 about the dangers of sea level rise and global warming.
The plan for developing the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change was drafted at the Woods Hole Research Center in the late 1980s by Woodwell and Kiliparti Ramakrishna. In 2005, Dr. John P. Holdren became the director and he continued to lead the organization until he was appointed as President Obama's science advisor in 2009. Holdren returned to WHRC as a senior advisor in 2017 after President Obama left office.
The organization's current president is Dr. Philip Duffy, a physicist who was formerly the White House National Science and Technology Council’s Senior Advisor to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. WHRC has about 60 staff members.
The Center’s main facility, located on Cape Cod in the town of Falmouth, was completed in 2003. The 19,300 sq ft (1,790 m2) building is composed of a renovated summer estate (ca. 1874) and a new wing.
Awards
The International Center for Climate Governance has named WHRC as the world's top climate change think tank for three years in a row—2013, 2014 and 2015. The award is based on quantitative and analytical data, including activities, publications and dissemination.