Campus Events

September 18-19, 2008

CLIMATE CHANGE IS GLOBAL: What We Can Do.

in collaboration with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
the second installment of our Science and the Public Series

a free public forum on global climate change
at the Pyle Center, UW-Madison campus
(702 Langdon St – @ Lake St)

Event poster here.


Program and Schedule:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Panel Discussion: "What Can We Do? What Should We Do?"
7pm, Pyle Center Auditorium (Rm. 121), 702 Langdon Street


Climate Change and Carbon Trading
"Carbon Trading & Other False Solutions to Climate Change"
Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
College of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine
School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)


Climate Change and Food Supplies
"Climate Change, Farming, and the Localization of Food"
Vern Grubinger, PhD
Coordinator, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program – USDA
Extension Professor, University of Vermont


Climate Change and Global Public Policy
"Global Climate Change Policy: Dream or Nightmare?"
Elizabeth Malone, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, Joint Global Climate Change Research Institute,
a collaboration of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland


Climate Change on the Global Front Line
"Global Concerns from the Climate Change Front Line: Tuvalu, South Pacific"
Heather Lazrus
PhD Candidate, Environmental Anthropology
University of Washington



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Keynote Lecture: "Global Warming: Is the Science Settled Enough for Policy?"
7pm, Pyle Center Auditorium (Rm. 121), 702 Langdon Street

Stephen H. Schneider
Climatologist, Stanford University
MacArthur Fellow
Co-author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chance Reports
Winner, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (shared)


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19: Reception
8:30pm, Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street
*Free hors d'oeuvres and cash bar*


About the Talks:

Stephen H. Schneider: "Global Warming: Is the Science Settled Enough for Policy?"

Abstract:
In the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), Working Group I states that warming is “unequivocal” and it is “very likely” that human activities are responsible for most of the warming of recent decades. The same report says warming to 2100 is “likely” to be 1.1 – 6.4 degrees C. Working Group II says 1.5 – 2.5 degrees C warming could commit 20-30% of known species to extinction (but only assigns this about a 50% chance). So, what is settled? Some projections are well established, some have competing explanations, yet others are speculative. Thus policy is a risk management judgment, just like most other complex socio-technical systems problems.

The number of people in the world is increasing, and they will undoubtedly demand higher standards of living that likely will be fueled by cheap, available energy sources such as coal for electricity generation and petroleum for gas-consuming large automobiles—sources which emit large amounts of green house gases. There is strong consensus that if this is the case, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere will double or triple by 2100. Many potentially serious impacts (although not all are negative) are expected. These impacts will be unevenly distributed with the most severe effects being experienced in poorer, warmer places, high mountains and polar regions or in “hurricane alley.” Local, regional, and international actions to put in place both adaptation and mitigation policies are already beginning and much more could be done if there were political will to substantially reduce the magnitude of the risks.


Howard Ehrman: "Carbon Trading & Other False Solutions to Climate Change"

Abstract:
Now that most of the world has accepted the reality of Climate Change, the challenge becomes which solutions will work best scientifically, economically, politically and culturally to avoid the "tipping point" and "point of no return" which may be less than 10 years away.

The good news is that there is a growing consensus that energy efficiency/conservation, renewable energy and public transportation are effective means to stabilize and decrease the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, presently at 385 PPM to 350 PPM, which the world's leading climatologists, including NASA Atmospheric Science Chief James Hansen calls: "the safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, . . . To preserve creation, the planet on which civilization developed."

The bad news is that many multi-national corporations, politicians, economists, environmental groups, and some scientists are promoting false solutions to prolong the extraction of fossil fuels, the enormous profits being made from them, the suffering which has already affected millions of humans, animals and plant species and which all accelerate the deadly march toward a point of no return of excess carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which are melting away the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctic Ice before our very eyes every minute of every day.

While focusing on the popular idea of Carbon Trading, Dr. Ehrman will also speak to the 3 pillars of the use of agro/biofuels, “clean” coal/carbon storage, and “safe” nuclear power that are influencing the Midwest Governor’s Association “Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Policy”.

Vern Grubinger: "Climate Change, Farming, and the Localization of Food"

Abstract:
Agriculture faces challenges, and even some opportunities, as our climate changes. With new weather patterns will come the need for different crop, livestock, and pest management strategies. At the same time, there’s growing uncertainty around the cost and supply of fossil energy. All this gives us good reason to look closely at sustainability throughout our food system – at present and into the future. Innovative farmers and communities are laying the groundwork for success - by conserving natural resources, localizing the production and distribution of food, and turning to renewable energy. In this way, we can prepare our food system for the risks posed by climate change, while reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.


Heather Lazrus: "Global Concerns from the Climate Change Front Line: Tuvalu, South Pacific"

Abstract:
The Pacific Island country of Tuvalu faces unprecedented challenges from climate change impacts that invoke concerns and questions of global relevance. What can we learn at the frontline of climate change? How does climate change threaten place-based culture, heritage, and national sovereignty? How do we deal as a global community with climate-induced displacement? Anthropological inquiry into issues of climate change can transcend multiple scales to help us begin to understand how the global phenomena of climate change are manifested locally, and how responses to climate change are in turn a call for global action.


Elizabeth Malone: "Global Climate Change Policy: Dream or Nightmare?"

Abstract:
The need for global policy on global climate change seems self-evident. But dreams of global cooperation on climate change have proven elusive so far, raising suggestions that it may be impossible-or even undesirable-to depend upon the establishment of global governance structures to address issues such as reducing emissions and preparing for adaptation. What would such structures look like? What are their pluses and minuses? What would be some alternatives?



About the Participants:

Keynote Lecturer Stephen H. Schneider is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Institute for International Studies, and Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University since September, 1992.

He was honored in 1992 with a MacArthur Fellowship for his ability to integrate and interpret the results of global climate research through public lectures, seminars, classroom teaching, environmental assessment committees, media appearances, Congressional testimony, and research collaboration with colleagues. He has served as a consultant to Federal Agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations. He also received, in 1991, the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, for furthering public understanding of environmental science and its implications for public policy. In 1998 he became a foreign member of the Academia Europaea, Earth and Cosmic Sciences Section. He was elected Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences (1999-2001). Schneider was elected to membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in April 2002.

Schneider was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program) from 1997-2001, and was a Lead Author in Working Group I from 1994-1996. He was also a lead author of the IPCC guidance paper on uncertainties. He is currently a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities (including Article 2) Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the IPCC.

Professor Schneider is Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy (CESP) and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (IPER), both at Stanford University.

For more information, please go here.


Panelist Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH learned about the environment by growing up on his grandfather’s farm 45 miles west of Chicago and from Dr. Barry Commoner, one of his professors at Washington University who taught him “always use critical thinking to ask what are the root causes of a problem, the forces in power, why is it happening, who benefits from it, who suffers because of it and what are we, the people, going to do about it?”.

Dr. Ehrman majored in both Biology and Political Science at Washington University, attended medical and public health school at the University of Illinois and did a 4-year Residency in Family & Occupational Medicine at Cook County Hospital. He has been on the faculty of the University of Southern California, University of Illinois and Cook County Hospital over the last 27 years. His area of interest and work has been environmental & occupational health both in the U.S. and internationally.

He is a founding member of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago and has been working on Prison Health Reform in California for the last 2 years.


Panelist Vern Grubinger, PhD is the vegetable and berry specialist with University of Vermont Extension, and coordinator of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE) of USDA.


Panelist Heather Lazrus is a PhD. Candidate at the University of Washington where she specializes in environmental anthropology. Her dissertation research focuses on the political ecology of climate change impacts in Tuvalu, South Pacific. Heather has consulted with organizations active in the Pacific including the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission and the World Bank. She has also been involved in several projects with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service examining impacts of environmental and policy change on fishing communities in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.


Panelist Elizabeth Malone is a senior research scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute. Her interests focus on policy-relevant sociological research in global change issues, developing studies that integrate disparate worldviews, data sources, and scientific approaches. Malone was an author and review editor for the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, both in impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and mitigation. In recent years she has been working on developing structured methods for analyzing country, sector, and local vulnerabilities to climate change. Associated with that work she has been exploring approaches to scenarios of the future that integrate socioeconomic and environmental information. She edited, with Steve Rayner, Human Choice and Climate Change, a four-volume assessment of social science research relevant to global climate change; they jointly authored the summary volume and an invited paper for Nature on the conclusions.

Malone holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Maryland-College Park. Her dissertation used both discourse analysis and social network analysis to explore bases for agreement in the arguments used in the global climate change debate.
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