invested in my work ...Do I think the university would try to find a way to continue to fund a position like mine, I don't think so.” (R10)
● “We did a lot of education on climate change topics related to flooding and resiliency, and [the program focus] kind of changed throughout the years depending on what our funders wanted from us .” (R02) ● “And then I have a partially state -funded position, which allows me to do my Extension work. I may get a call from somebody at the city [saying] ‘Could you help us out? We're developing a new sustainability plan.’ So I can contribute to that and maybe bring in a graduate student or something along those lines, but I have license to do it through my state appointment. Without that kind of [salary] continuity, it would really be challenging. ” (RO6)
CES Institutional Challenges
Administrative Resistance Administrative resistance to C/EW initiatives and efforts was raised by several “early adopters” as one of the most significant challenges they’ve encountered in their CES work. They expressed the belief that most Extension administrators do not currently view climate and extreme weather programming as a high priority, especially relative to traditional programs. A handful of interviewees described situations where they were subject to censorship and/or pressure by administration to abandon their science- based climate programming efforts altogether, and one noted an encouraging turning point with respect to this resistance. ● “... nationally there's some Extension leadership that really sees the value of Extension talking about extreme events and climate and climate change and weather. But, based on [my] experience, I don't know that that is all Extension leadership nationally .” (R10) ● “ Our Extension team tells us that they cannot organize an event solely around climate change , not gonna fly, but they do incorporate soil health or how to manage extreme rainfall events or drought into the programming that they’re doing.” (R11) ● “There was a situation where my supervisor in Extension was unhappy that I was working on climate change work and submitted a letter to me and asked me to stop doing all work on climate change ...I wasn't sure if I was going to jeopardize my position by continuing to work on that project ...I didn't feel like I could continue working.” (R12) ● “ I just realized how biased our Extension system is. It's out of control. I mean, we worked to some extent with (ORG) and with (ORG), but it was just a real eye opener in terms of the disconnect between research, Extension, and practice …of what researchers are getting funded for in terms of ‘sexy’ science.” (R13)
● “I don't think our Dean really made it a priority …I or we would get emails [from our Dean] saying, ‘Be very careful how you talk, how you frame climate change with farmers.’ And I would
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