event • Conferences & Symposia

Something in the Air: Climate Change, Science and Policy

Friday, April 15, 2011
Radcliffe Gymnasium
10 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Four men sit at a panel table. One is speaking into a table microphone while the others listen.

Photo by Tony Rinaldo

The 2011 science symposium takes a cross-disciplinary approach to the topic of climate and policy. Atmospheric and environmental scientists, engineers, archaeologists, and scholars of public health, economics, and government come together to address and debate topics fundamental to our understanding of the science of climate change and the policies that result. These issues will be considered in relation to the recent UN Climate Change Conferences and the worldwide economic downturn.

A woman speaks at a podium in front of an audience..

Welcome and "Human Adaptation to Climate Change in the Archeological Past"

Welcome by Dimitar D. Sasselov, Senior Advisor to the Science Program, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of Astronomy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

"Human Adaptation to Climate Change in the Archaeological Past" by Jennifer R. Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis

Audience members line up to ask questions in a large event space.

"Water Vapor, the Hydrological Cycle, and Climate Change"

Isaac M. Held, Senior Research Scientist, head of Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics Group, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA (Princeton, NJ); Lecturer with rank of Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton University

Four men sit at a panel title, under a screen that says

"Climate, Oceans, and Human Health"

Rita Colwell, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health; Senior Advisor and Chairman Emeritus, Canon US Life Sciences; President and CEO, CosmosID, Inc.

20110415 Something In The Air Dsc6907 1 Radcliffe Tr

"Solar Geoengineering as a Tool to Manage Climate Risks"

David Keith, Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary

"The Global Politics of Clean Energy Innovation"

Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment; Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change, Council on Foreign Relations

Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks

PANEL DISCUSSION

David S. Battisti (Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Tamaki Endowed Chair, University of Washington)

Kerry Emanuel (Professor of Atmospheric Science; Director, Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Daniel Schrag (Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University; Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment)

Carl Wunsch (Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physical Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

CLOSING REMARKS

Rosalind A. Segal, Senior Advisor to the Science Program, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Member of the Departments of Pediatric Oncology and Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University