Center Events

The Energy and Climate Challenge Fall 2008 Series

The Center, along with the CU Energy Initiative, cosponsored a series of lectures and panel discussions on the CU-Boulder campus this fall to examine the challenge of meeting rapidly rising global energy demand while bringing greenhouse gas emissions under control. The series was intended to foster discussion and debate on these issues to coincide with the 2008 presidential campaign.

The first event, a panel discussion held on September 16, addressed the topic: “The Energy and Climate Challenge: Have We Underestimated the Size of the Challenge?”  The panelists included Roger Pielke, Jr., CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research; Tom Wigley, National Center for Atmospheric Research; Frank Laird, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver; and Gwyn Prins, London School of Economics Mackinder Centre for the Study of Long Wave Events.

The second panel discussion held on October 30 addressed the topic:  “Do We Need a "Manhattan/Apollo Project" To Solve the Energy/Climate Problem?”  The panel addressed whether greater use of today's energy technologies take us to climate stabilization, or whether we need a large-scale investment in new energy research and development on the order of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb in WWII and the Apollo Project that sent a man to the moon.  The panelists included Craig Cox, Interwest Energy Alliance; Rad Byerly, Jr., Center for Science and Technology Policy Research; Pete Geddes, Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment; Chuck Kutscher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and Gregory F. Nemet, La Follette School of Public Affairs and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin.   Paul Komor of the Energy Initiative moderated the panel.

The final event was a November 17 keynote address by Daniel Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy, University of California-Berkeley, that opened a day-long research symposium on energy and climate sponsored by the CU Energy Initiative.  The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion including Tom Weimer, Minority Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming; Jean Fruci, Staff Director, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, House Committee on Science and Technology; and Michael Rodemeyer, former Assistant Director for Environment in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President in the Clinton administration, and Chief Democratic Counsel for the U.S. Congress House Committee on Science and Technology. For more information click here. Videotapes of all three events are online.

Fall 2008 Noontime Seminar Talks

Mary Tyszkiewicz, Venture Capital Concept Analysis, September 8, 2008.

Frank Laird, Changing Technological Systems: Comprehensive Policy for Renewable Energy, October 13, 2008.

Barbara Farhar, Zero Energy Homes, October 20, 2008.

Marilyn Averill, Climate Litigation: The Role of the Judiciary in U.S. Climate Policy, October 27, 2008.

Jerry Peterson, A nuclear physicist in the Department of State, November 10, 2008.

All talks are free and open to the public and held at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research's conference room from noon- 1:00 pm. Click here for directions.

Presentations by Center Personnel

Marilyn Averill, The Ethics of Climate Adaptation.  Presentation at a side session sponsored by Rock Ethics Institute at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (pending UNFCCC acceptance), Poznan, 2008.

Marilyn Averill, The Complexities of International Climate Policy.  Presentation at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Phoenix, January 2009.

Lisa Dilling and Elisabeth Failey: Management of carbon across sectors and scales: Insights from land use decision making.  AGU Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 19, 5:30 pm.

Elisabeth Failey and Lisa Dilling: Understanding Human Decision Making as a Driver for Carbon Sequestration on Land (poster presentation).  AGU Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 17, 8:00-11:00 am poster session.

Recent Talks by Center Personnel

Marilyn Averill, Climate Litigation: The Role of the Judiciary in U.S. Climate Policy, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, Boulder, Oct. 27, 2008.

Roger Pielke, Jr., Scientists in Highly Politicized Debates, Cornell University, October 23, 2008.

Marilyn Averill, Commentator for “Climate Change, Federal Land, and Resilience” by Robert L. Glicksman at the University of Nebraska School of Law Environmental Resilience and Law Symposium, Lincoln, Sept. 25, 2008.

Lisa Dilling, Carbon cycle science and policy.  Guest lecture for Raj Pandya's class “Introduction to Climate Change,” Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, Sept. 17, 2008.

Benjamin Hale, Restoration and Remediation as Redress to Wrongdoing, Clemson University, September 5-7, 2008.

Bill Travis, The Ecological Impacts of Climate Change Panel, CU-Boulder, August 23, 2008.

Lisa Dilling, Assembling the Policy Puzzle Panel, CU-Boulder, August 23, 2008.

Roger Pielke, Jr., Prospects for Governing Emerging Technologies: Comments, Big Sky, MT. August 17-22, 2008.

Marilyn Averill, Managing Climate Uncertainties.  Poster presentation at the Gordon Research Conference on Science and Technology Policy, Big Sky, MT, August 2008.

Roger Pielke, Jr., Social Dimensions of Climate Change Panel, CU-Boulder, August 22, 2008.

Benjamin Hale, Co-Coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, CU Boulder, August 8-10, 2008.

Roger Pielke, Jr., Climate Change, Economics, & the Courts, Bozeman, Montana, July 2008.

Roger Pielke, Jr., 33rd Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop, July 12-15, 2008.

David Cherney, Integrative Conservation Problem Solving Workshop: Methods to Bridge the Natural and Social Sciences, Chattanooga, TN, July 13, 2008.

David Cherney, The American West’s Longest Land Mammal Migration, Newport, RI. July 2, 2008.