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Ogmius Newsletter

Center News

Changes at the Center

Roger Pielke, Jr., who has directed the CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research since its inception in 2001, has ended his term serving as director of the Center and is headed for a year-long sabbatical at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization. He is currently taking a break from regularly contributing to the science weblog Prometheus.  CIRES Associate Director Dr. William Lewis will serve as the Interim Director of the Policy Center. Bill has considerable experience with science and policy issues and is a leader on campus and at CIRES. We are very pleased that he will be associated with the Center.

In addition, Ben Hale, newly hired as a faculty member in Environmental Studies (ENVS), will be joining the Center this fall. Ben's expertise is in philosophy and ethics, and we are thrilled that he'll be adding humanities expertise to the Center. Learn more about Ben at his website and in his recent paper: "The Moral Considerability of Invasive Transgenic Animals”.

Lisa Dilling, who has been with us for the past few years as a CIRES visiting fellow, will be joining ENVS as a faculty member starting in January. Many of you already know Lisa, but if you don't, please visit her homepage.

Roger Pielke, Jr.Roger Pielke, Jr. Testifies Before Congress

Roger Pielke, Jr. testified before the House Committee on Science and Technology on Wednesday, May 16 2007 on "The State of Climate Change Science 2007, Pt. III."  Roger’s testimony began with three assertions:

  • Current debate over climate change represents a great opportunity to discuss what kind of future will result from our current decisions. This opportunity is often missed because of a focus on the negative aspects of climate change or because debate degenerates into unhelpful partisan or ideological attacks.
  • The IPCC WG III indicates that the benefits of mitigation outweigh its costs, and based on this conclusion, mitigation should be a policy priority. Of course, the exact details of mitigation policies, and in particular the time symmetry between costs and benefits, are not trivial.
  • The IPCC WG II is concerned with one of many pressing challenges to global well-being, and emphasizes greenhouse gas mitigation is only one of many avenues for confronting those challenges.  However, this important message often goes unappreciated in policy debates. We need to make certain that the focus on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions does not crowd out other important challenges.

To read more click here.