Center Talks & Presentations
Bill Travis Panel Discussion About Ethical Issues in Geo-engineering
Center director Bill Travis took part in a panel discussion titled "From Research to Field Testing and Deployment: Ethical Issues Raised By Geo-engineering." The panel was part of the National Academies’ workshop "Geo-engineering Options to Respond to Climate Change: Steps to Establish a Research Agenda." The purpose of the workshop was to inform the work of the America’s Climate Choices panels and steering committee by examining a number of proposed "geo-engineering" approaches, or interventions in the climate system designed to diminish the amount of climate change occurring after greenhouse gases or radiatively active aerosols are released to the atmosphere, with an emphasis on the research needed to better understand the potential efficacy and consequences of the various approaches.
Travis argued that experience with weather modification indicates a public willingness to accept interventions like cloud seeding for water resources, but a strong public aversion to larger-scale interventions like hurricane modification. His paper is available here.
Reflections on the Copenhagen International Scientific Congress Meeting
In March 2009 the University of Copenhagen hosted an international scientific congress on climate change. The main aim of the congress was to provide a synthesis of existing and emerging scientific knowledge necessary in order to make intelligent societal decisions concerning application of mitigation and adaptation strategies in response to climate change. The scientific congress took place in anticipation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-15), which will be held in Copenhagen November-December 2009. The Danish government will hand over the results of the scientific congress to decision makers at COP-15.
Several CU researchers and graduate students, including the Center’s Lisa Dilling, Betsy Failey, and Marilyn Averill, attended the Copenhagen meeting. The Center organized a discussion forum on April 13 to allow participants to reflect on their experiences at the meeting. A major theme of the discussion was the demand by policy-makers in the final plenary session for firm guidance on what constituted "dangerous" climate change, and the difficulty of translating global change science outcomes into such socially-defined thresholds.
Other Talks
Erik Fisher, ENVS graduate and Assistant Research Professor, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO), Department of Political Science, Arizona State University, returned to CSTPR this summer to give a talk about the “Two Cultures” in Science Policy Today.
Peter Hoppe, head of Geo Risks Research Department, Munich Reinsurance Company, Munich, Germany, gave a talk about trends in natural disasters shown by Munich Re’s natural catastrophes database.
Roger Pielke, Jr., gave a talk at UC-Berkeley titled "The Efficiency Illusion and other Energy Myths: Why Cap & Trade Won't Work -- and What Can". Tom Fuller, SF Environmental Policy Examiner of Examiner.com, covered Roger’s talk and provides a nice overview. The Fuller articles, as well as Roger’s Powerpoint, can be found here.
Shali Mohleji, Environmental Studies and Center graduate student, gave a talk "The Politics of Gulf Coast Restoration" as part of the ENVS Colloquium series “Restoring the Earth: no easy answers.”
For a complete list of past and future talks see our events page.
Fall 2009 Noontime Seminar Talks
September 14, Krister Andersson
University of Colorado, Political Sciences Department
"Community Self-Governance of Forests in Bolivia"
September 21, Robert Frodeman
University of North Texas, Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies
“What is Interdisciplinarity?”
September 28, Sonia Akter
Australian National University
“Estimating non-market values under scenario and policy uncertainty: the case of climate change mitigation in Australia”
October 5, Rad Bylerly
Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
“The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission”
October 19, Deserai Anderson Crow
CU Center for Environmental Journalism
“Recreational water rights in Colorado"
October 26, Max Boykoff
Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
“An Inconvenient Celebrity? Promises and Pitfalls of Celebrity Involvement in Climate Change Science, Policy and the Public”
November 2, Ursula Rick
Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
"Climate Change Metrics and Their Uncertainty"
November 16, Marilyn Averill
Center for Science and Technology Policy Research
"The Role of the Courts in U.S. Climate Policy"
All talks are free and open to the public and held at the Center’s conference room from 12:00-1:00 pm (click here for directions). To see a complete list of talks being held see our events page. To be notified of upcoming talks join our mailing list.
This series is co-sponsored by the CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research and the Institute of Behavioral Science, Environment and Society Program
