Climate Change:
Intersections of Science and Policy

Friday, January 9, 2009

---

With climate change and energy high priorities on the congressional and presidential agendas, this briefing provided tools to help policymakers decipher the scientific information reflected in climate change proposals and determine what science can meaningfully contribute to the climate change policy discussion.

The briefing featured a panel of leading scientific and policy experts who gave short presentations.

Speakers included:

• Timothy Wirth is president of the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1975-1987) and the U.S. Senate (1986-1992), where he focused on environmental issues, particularly global climate change. He served in the U.S. Department of State as the first Undersecretary for Global Affairs (1993-1997) where he was the lead U.S. negotiator for the Kyoto Climate Conference.
• Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at NOAA, recently served as one of the co-chairs of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She was awarded the 1999 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award bestowed by the U.S. government.
  Download a PDF of this Presentation
• Peter Gleick is the president and co-founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert and was named a MacArthur Fellow (often known as the "Genius Grant") in October 2003 for his work.
  Download a PDF of this Presentation
• Ted Parson, Professor of Law and of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Michigan, authored The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change and Protecting the Ozone Layer: Science and Strategy, which won the 2004 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award.
  Download a PDF of this Presentation

Held in conjunction with the House Science and Technology Committee, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),
Ecological Society of America, Geological Society of America, 
American Meteorological Society (AMS), and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Contact Kasey White (kwhite@aaas.org, 202.326.6661) for additional information.