A University of Colorado at Boulder symposium Aug. 22-23 will feature top national climate scientists, energy experts and environmental journalists discussing the science of climate change and the road toward a viable national energy strategy.
Titled "Meeting the Global Energy and Climate Challenge," the symposium at CU-Boulder is free and open to the public. The two-day event includes sessions on global change prediction, carbon-free energy strategies, the social dimensions of climate change and ecological impacts of climate change. For a full schedule of the campus event venues and times visit .
"This event brings together some of the best and brightest minds in a number of academic fields from universities, government and the private sector," said Stein Sture, vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate School at CU-Boulder. "For CU-Boulder it is a piece of a much larger climate and energy initiative that we think can help position the world for the large challenges and opportunities we see on the horizon in the coming decades."
A session on science and climate-change prediction on Aug. 23 includes CU-Boulder professor and Greenland climate-change expert Konrad Steffen, CU-Boulder professor and ice-core expert Jim White and Colorado State University professor and ecologist Diana Wall. A second session featuring talks by CU-Boulder professors Jeff Mitton, Russ Monson and Tom Veblen will address the ecological impacts of climate change, including biological responses, ecosystem responses and the role climate change plays in wildfire.
The challenge of developing carbon-free energy will be addressed on Aug. 22 by two scientists and a panel of experts. CU-Boulder Professor Carl Koval will give a presentation on the arithmetic of carbon-free energy, while National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist Charles Kutscher will talk on the growth of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Other panelists will address carbon capture and sequestration, clean-tech investment, large-scale renewable energy projects and the development of biofuels.
A special media panel Aug. 23 titled "Communicating Energy and Climate Change: Is Anybody Listening?" will include CNN science and environment executive producer Peter Dykstra, national Associated Press science reporter Seth Borenstein, Audubon magazine senior editor Keith Kloor and author Dan Glick, a former Newsweek reporter who has written for National Geographic and National Wildlife magazines. The panel also includes CU-Boulder environmental journalism professors Len Ackland and Tom Yulsman.
An Aug. 23 session on the policy challenges of crafting a national climate and energy strategy will include former U.S. senator and current United Nations Foundation President Tim Wirth, National Center for Atmospheric Research Senior Scientist Tom Wigley, Stanford ecologist Pamela Matson, CU law Professor Lakshman Guruswamy and CU-Boulder professor and science policy expert Roger Pielke Jr.
Panel members in an Aug. 22 session on the social dimensions of climate change will include CU-Boulder professors Diane McKnight, Lori Hunter, Pielke and NCAR scientist Patricia Romero Lankao. The panelists will address water, natural disasters, demographics, migration and food security in a changing climate.
Nationally known conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment will talk at 7 p.m. Aug. 23 on climate change and the prospects for nature.
The sessions are part of a larger symposium that also features such topics as mental health in the 21st century, Social Security, and U.S. immigration and trade policy. A session on university and city roles in carbon neutrality efforts will feature a keynote address by Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism Inc.
Some of the other participants in the two-day event include National Institute of Mental Health Director Tom Instel, Colorado First Lady Jeannie Ritter, former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, Social Security Institute President Lawrence Hunter and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Senior Scientist Susan Solomon.