[DIALOGnews] DISCCRS News 2/2/2007
Ruth Ladderud
ladderra at whitman.edu
Fri Feb 2 19:58:25 CST 2007
DISCCRS News
2/2/2007
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESOURCES and FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Small Grant Program for the Human Dimensions (SGP-HD) – Inter-
American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI)
(see RESOURCES 1 below)
New Website - Sea Ice Tide - Inertial Interaction - International
Arctic Research Center - University of Alaska Fairbanks (USA)
http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/SITII
(see RESOURCES 2 below)
2007 POGO-SCOR Visiting Fellowships for Oceanographic Observations
http://www.ocean-partners.org/POGO_SCOR_Fellowships.htm
(see RESOURCES 3 below)
New report on the climate change responses of the 500 largest U.S.
companies released on 31 January 2007
http://www.ceres.org/pub/publication.php?pid=234
(see RESOURCES 4 below)
FORUM
EcoRes Forum Climate Change E-Conference Series - "From
Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: Making the Shift" – April 2007
http://www.eco-res.org or write forum at eco-res.org
(see FORUM 1 below)
SCIENCE NEWS
Articles about the IPPC Report released 2/2/07:
www.ipcc.ch for full 2001 and 2007 reports
Blame for global warming placed firmly on humankind
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11088-blame-for-
global-warming-placed-firmly-on-humankind.html
(see NEWS 1 below)
Panel Says Warming Caused by Humans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-
climate.html Or: http://tinyurl.com/255usa
(see NEWS 2 below)
Global climate report gets final polish before release
(see NEWS 3 below)
Indonesia could lose 2,000 islands to global warming by 2030
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200701300312.htm
(see NEWS 4 below)
New Climate Disclosure Standards Board launched -- company climate
risk reporting
www.ceres.org (Ceres website), www.incr.com (Investor Network
on Climate Risk website)
(see NEWS 5 below)
New Climate Report Too Rosy, Experts Say
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/01/29/
new_climate_report_to
o_rosy_experts_say/ Or: http://tinyurl.com/2utbhn
(see NEWS 6 below)
World Scientists Near Consensus on Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/world/30climate.html Or:
http://tinyurl.com/2bq62y
(see NEWS 7 below)
On Global Warming, What US Can Learn from Europe
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p02s01-usec.html Or: http://
tinyurl.com/38fuow
(see NEWS 8 below)
Lawmakers hear of interference in global warming science;
presidential hopefuls speak out.
(see NEWS 9 below)
France Tells U.S. to Sign Climate Pacts or Face Tax
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01climate.html
http://tinyurl.com/324p59
(see NEWS 10 below)
Washington Watch: Post Postdoc: Are New Scientists Prepared for the
Real World? - From American Institute of Biological Science
http://www.aibs.org/washington-watch/washington_watch_2007_01.html
SUMMER PROGRAMS, COURSES, INTERNSHIPS, MEETINGS, OPPORTUNITIES
Call for Posters - 2007 Gordon Research Conference on Polar Marine
Science
- Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, 16 February 2007
http://csd.tamu.edu/news/news_item.2007-01-29.8117887449
Invitation - European launch event for the IPY - 26 February, 2007 -
European Parliament Strasbourg
(France)
http://csd.tamu.edu/news/news_item.2007-01-29.7632699003 For
Further info
2007 3rd Annual Polar Technology Conference
- April 26-27, 2007 - Stanford University Menlo Park, CA (USA)
Brings together Polar Scientists and Technology Developers in a
forum to exchange information on research system operational needs
and technology solutions that have been successful in polar
environments. This exchange of knowledge helps to address issues of
design, implementation, and deployment for systems that are to
achieve their research goals in the Polar Regions.
http://csd.tamu.edu/news/news_item.2007-01-29.3389747823
Young Scholar Network for Earth Systems Science - Third Workshop -
June 2-5, 2007 - Bristol (UK)
http:///ww.aimes.ucar.edu/activities/YSN/2007_UK/YSN_BRISTOL.shtml
(see MEETINGS 1 below)
JOBS
Lecturer - Development Studies - UEA (UK) Ref: ATR664
http://www.uea.ac.uk/hr/jobs/acad/atr663.htm
Postdoc - Tropical Climate Change - Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences - University of Miami, FL (USA)
(see JOB 1 below)
Post Doc - Participatory Appraisal of EU climate change policies -
The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) - Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam – (The Netherlands)
(see JOB 2 below)
Postdoctoral fellowship - International Institute for Applied Systems
Analysis (IIASA) - Vienna, (Austria)
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/YSP/pdoc/index.html
(see JOB 3 below)
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Resources and Funding Opportunities
(RESOURCES 1) Small Grant Program for the Human Dimensions (SGP-HD)
– Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI)
SGP-HD builds on the interdisciplinary networks created in the
second round of the Collaborative Research Network (CRN II) program
and is designed to strengthen the “Human Dimensions and Policy
Implications”of the IAI Science Agenda. The program will develop
strong human dimensions research in conjunction with the projects
under CRN II by integrating natural and human sciences. The program
is intended to not only strengthen the human dimensions component of
individual projects through integration of a range of human sciences
as an integral part of the new generation of projects under CRN II,
but also to link individual CRN II projects with similar human
dimensions issues.
SGP-HD will fund interdisciplinary Global Environmental Change
(GEC) research with emphasis on complex, dynamic coupled human –
biophysical systems in order to develop strong human dimensions
research in conjunction with existing CRN II projects.
Please follow the links below to access the detailed call for
proposals
Call for Proposals: https://iaibr3.iai.int/twiki/pub/IAI/
IaiServicesReception/IAI_SGP_HD_Call4Proposals.pdf
Collaborator Form: https://iaibr3.iai.int/twiki/pub/IAI/
IaiServicesReception/IAI_SGP_HD_CollForm.doc
Proposed Budget and Timetable: https://iaibr3.iai.int/twiki/pub/
IAI/IaiServicesReception/IAI_SGP_HD_BudgetForm.doc
********************
(RESOURCES 2) New Website - Sea Ice Tide - Inertial Interaction -
International Arctic Research Center - University of Alaska Fairbanks
(USA)
http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/SITII
A new website is available for Sea Ice Tide - Inertial
Interaction (SITII), a project of the International Arctic Research
Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs, SITII is an
observation and modeling project aimed at elucidating the physical
mechanisms underlying the interaction of tides, boundary layers, and
sea ice mechanisms.
The study utilizes drift data from buoys that were deployed in
the Beaufort Sea in August 2006, in addition to buoys from previous
arctic field projects, to track the movement and interaction of sea
ice relative to storms and tidal changes. The website features near
real-time position data for the buoys as well as detailed
descriptions of the Joint Western Arctic Climate Study/Joint Ocean
Ice Study Research Cruise on the icebreaker Louis St. Laurent in
August 2006.
A second set of buoys will be deployed in 2007.
For further information on SITII, please contact: Jennifer
Hutchings, International Arctic Research Center E-mail:
jenny at iarc.uaf.edu
********************
(RESOURCES 3) 2007 POGO-SCOR Visiting Fellowships for Oceanographic
Observations
http://www.ocean-partners.org/POGO_SCOR_Fellowships.htm
This announcement may be of interest to some OCB/OCCC PIs who
have ongoing international collaborations.
Please circulate this to your national oceanographic community.
We are looking for both hosts and fellows. Remember that the
fellowships are for observations, not research. Many of the
applications last year were for training in research methods and we
had to give these a low score.
Best regards, Ed Urban, Ph.D., Executive Director, Scientific
Committee on Oceanic Research E-mail: Ed.Urban at jhu.edu http://
www.scor-int.org
********************
(RESOURCES 4) New report on the climate change responses of the 500
largest U.S. companies released on 31 January 2007
http://www.ceres.org/pub/publication.php?pid=234
Dear climate-l colleagues -
I am writing to inform you that Ceres and Calvert released a new
report, Climate Risk Disclosure by the S&P 500, on 31 January 2007.
This is the first-ever analysis of climate disclosure practices among
the 500 largest U.S. companies.
The report concludes that America’s largest companies still are
not taking climate change seriously enough. Less than half (47
percent) of the S&P 500 companies responded to a global survey last
year by the Carbon Disclosure Project requesting information about
their climate risks and strategies, and those that did respond failed
to provide much of the information investors are seeking. Nearly a
third (30 percent) of the responders, in fact, declined to publicly
release their responses, calling them “confidential.”
Other key findings from the Ceres/Calvert report include:
-- Poor Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management: 80 percent of the 228
companies that responded to the survey (182 companies) addressed the
need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only a quarter (59
companies) disclosed measurable emissions reductions targets and
specific time frames for reductions.
-- Physical Impacts Not on Radar Screen: Nearly 75 percent of the
responding companies (171 companies) acknowledged bottom-line risks
associated with extreme weather events such as hurricanes, fires and
floods. However, very few of the companies surveyed link more-
extreme weather to climate change and fewer still—only four
percent – disclosed strategies for mitigating and adapting to the
growing physical impacts from climate change.
The Ceres/Calvert analysis was based on S&P 500 company responses
to a questionnaire distributed last year by the Carbon Disclosure
Project (CDP), to obtain more information relating to corporate
management of climate change. CDP is a coordinated effort by 225
global investors with total assets of $31 trillion. The report
authors used the Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure to
analyze the quality of responses.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Chris Fox, Director of Investor Programs, Ceres, fox at ceres.org
Ceres website (www.ceres.org) Investor Network on Climate Risk
website (www.incr.com)
***************************************************
Forum
(FORUM 1) EcoRes Forum Climate Change E-Conference Series - "From
Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: Making the Shift" – April 2007
http://www.eco-res.org or write forum at eco-res.org.
The EcoRes Forum, a new initiative undertaken by Mary Leyser,
Coordinator of the Eco-Ethics International Union (EEIU), and Acad.
Prof. Gennady Polikarpov, EEIU Vice-President and Chief Scientist at
the Institute of Biology of Southern Seas in Sevastopol, Ukraine,
announces the launch of a series of online e-conferences focusing on
the ethical, political and sociocultural aspects of climate change.
The series, which will be offered free of charge, starts off in
April 2007 with a two-week dialogue on a topic of increasing urgency:
expanding and accelerating an ecocentric philosophy among societies
around the world. The need for such a shift has long been recognized.
Based on the UN's Rio Declaration of Environment and Development, in
1992 Al Gore observed, "Our challenge is to accelerate the needed
change in thinking about our relationship to the environment in order
to shift the pattern of our civilization to a new equilibrium -
before the world's ecological system loses its current one." (Earth
in the Balance)
Titled "From Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism: Making the Shift",
the e-conference will bring together academics and activists,
scientists and social critics, researchers and journalists, community
leaders and citizens, all focused on looking for answers and actions
to make this paradigm shift a reality. After reflecting on past
movement successes to identify transferable practices, the semi-
structured discussion will evaluate the current status - looking at
what is working (and what isn't) around the globe. Armed with this
knowledge, participants will shift focus to the future, considering
multi-prong approaches for moving forward on this trans-disciplinary
issue.
As EcoRes materials outline, the forum's mission is ambitious,
yet, organizers are convinced, fully achievable: 1)In keeping with
our foundational philosophy of ecocentric environmental ethics and
commitment to the principles of social equity and environmental
justice; 2) by leveraging the potential of new media by providing an
easily accessible global platform for discussion and access to
subject experts; 3) · by involving global stakeholders in global
issue discussions by circumventing the logistical and financial
barriers of traditional dialogue interactions; 4) by building ongoing
connections and networks between these actors; 5) by crossing
borders, whether disciplinary, philosophical, or geopolitical; and 6)
· by maintaining a results-oriented focus;
The goals of the EcoRes Forum are: 1) to level the field of
discourse by moving it to a space whose boundaries are set only by
our own creativity; 2) to promote awareness, public dialogue and the
free exchange and exploration of ideas, knowledge and issues related
to climate change; 3) to leave all participants with something of
value, whether knowledge, best practices, or a new perspective, which
can be put to use immediately to improve efforts in their individual
fields; and 4) by so doing, to contribute to taking the environmental
movement to the next level and thereby, in some small way, to assist
in preventing further extreme human-induced climate change.
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Science News
(NEWS 1) Blame for global warming placed firmly on humankind
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11088-blame-for-
global-warming-placed-firmly-on-humankind.html
New Scientist –The most authoritative scientific report on
climate change says with 90% certainty that the burning of fossil
fuels and other human activities are driving climate change.
The report, from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, says the rise in global temperatures could be as high as 6.4°
C by 2100. The report also predicts sea level rises and increases in
hurricanes.
The new IPCC report is the work of 3750 climate experts, who have
spent six years reviewing all the available climate research. It was
released in Paris, France, on Friday.
*********************
(NEWS 2) Panel Says Warming Caused by Humans
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-
climate.html Or: http://tinyurl.com/255usa
New York Times (Registration Required) - PARIS, Feb. 2 - The
world is already committed to centuries of warming, shifting weather
patterns and rising seas from the atmospheric buildup of gases that
trap heat, but the warming can be substantially blunted by prompt
action, an international network of climate experts said today.
The report released here represented the fourth assessment since
1990 by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of
the United Nations, of the causes and consequences of climate change.
But for the first time the group asserted with near certainty - more
than 90 percent confidence - that carbon dioxide and other heat-
trapping greenhouse gases from human activities were the main drivers
of warming since 1950.
In its last report, in 2001, the panel, consisting of hundreds of
scientists and reviewers, put the confidence level at between 66 and
90 percent.
********************
(NEWS 3) Global climate report gets final polish before release
Margaret Munro - CanWest News Service - Thursday, February 01,
2007 The report on the state of Earth's climate, to be released
Friday, is one of the most scrutinized, heavily edited and carefully
coded documents ever written.
Climatologists hope it also will have the power to change the
world, and what humans are doing to it.
Almost three years in the making, with input from hundreds of
researchers, the report is now undergoing a last-minute, closed-door
edit by high-level government delegates and scientists in Paris.
"We'll be going over it line by line," says Francis Zwiers, a top
Environment Canada scientist, and one of the researchers and
government officials holed up near the Eiffel Tower negotiating how
best to describe the remarkable changes underway as the planet warms.
Reports Wednesday suggested the experts are falling behind in
their task of reaching consensus on the wording. All governments
involved must agree on the language in the summary.
"We are at 30 per cent (complete) and we have used 60 per cent of
our time," said Arthur Petersen, who represents the Dutch Environment
Ministry.
Leaked drafts of Friday's report, widely quoted in the media in
recent weeks, say the evidence of climate warming is "unequivocal."
The change is visible in the air, oceans and melting ice and largely
driven by ever-increasing human emissions of greenhouse gases.
The marathon session in Paris is massaging and tweaking the
draft, which is just 12 to 15 pages long and summarizes the key
findings of science teams that have produced an 11-chapter tome -
more than 1,000 pages of eye-glazing detail to be published later
this spring. Every word of the summary is being weighed with the kind
of precision only scientists and bureaucrats could dream up.
For handy reference at the Paris meeting there is a 56-page
technical summary, complete with a chart calibrating the meaning of
loaded phrases - "virtually certain" means greater than 99 per cent
probability, "likely" translates to more than 66 per cent, while
"exceptionally unlikely" is less than one per cent probability.
The definitions are supposed to add precision to Friday's summary
report. They also help counter last-minute attempts to water down or
exaggerate the climate change underway.
"Our job is only to accept changes consistent with our chapter's
findings," says Ken Denman, another Canadian researcher burning the
midnight oil in Paris.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, was
established in 1988 to bring together climate scientists to assess
the risks posed by the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide and methane gas that humans pump into the atmosphere
each year.
Scientists say there is little in IPCC reports that has not been
widely reported in science journals and been the fodder of headlines
for years.
What sets the reports apart, they say, is the way they pull all
the pieces together, build consensus and command attention. As the
IPCC delegation gathered in Paris this week there were already calls
for a world summit on climate change from the United Nations
Environment Programme.
Friday's report is based on the fourth assessment, Climate Change
2007: The Physical Science Basis, and focuses on how greenhouse gases
have locked the planet into a human-induced warming trend that will
be felt for centuries to come. Two other IPCC reports, to be released
in April and May, will describe how society needs to adapt to the
coming change and lay out options for cutting emissions.
The authors of this week's report say they have weighed all the
evidence and theories about how and why temperatures are rising.
They have also assessed 19 climate models from labs and
meteorological services around the world, including one run by
Environment Canada's supercomputer in Dorval, Que., that replicate
past climates with uncanny accuracy and forecast big change in coming
decades.
Scientists from around the globe have been involved since 2004 -
Denman's co-ordinated input from 14 lead authors and about 60
contributing authors for his chapter on how carbon moves between the
land, ocean and atmosphere. Hundreds more have been writing and
reviewing the other 10 chapters.
Critics and skeptics were encouraged to get involved."I actually
was a bit pushy about it because I think if people are going to
complain, then let them complain in a constructive way," Denman said
in a recent interview in his office at the Canadian Centre for
Climate Modelling and Analysis in Victoria, where he's on secondment
from the Fisheries and Oceans Department.
His chapter attracted 3,000 individual comments. "And we had to
respond in writing to every single one," Denman says flipping through
the thick binder holding them all.
"It's a brutal job," says Denman, an expert on the carbon cycle
and IPCC veteran who helped write the 1995 report that helped focus
international attention on the greenhouse gas problem.
Climatologist Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria is also
one of the nine Canadian researchers heavily involved in producing
this year's report.
The debate between scientists has been right down to the wire.
Two weeks ago Weaver says they were still arguing over the chance of
an abrupt collapse of Atlantic currents that carry heat from the
tropics to Europe.
Is it "unlikely" (less than 33 per cent probability) or "very
unlikely" (less than 10 per cent probability). "It took many hours,
with many people around the world for that one paragraph," says Weaver.
Negotiators in Paris this week can - and are - haggling over the
wording in the summary.
"But they can't change the science," says Weaver.
It is already all laid out in the IPCC report, the final draft of
which covers more than 1,000 pages. "It's an outstanding piece of
scientific research, it covers all aspect of the climate," says
Weaver, who is already using it for teaching and reference. "It's the
go-to place for anything to do with climate science."
The IPCC has its critics. Toronto geologist and climate blogger
Steve McIntyre is harshly critical of the IPCC for delaying
publication of the full report until three months after Friday's
summary is released at a carefully orchestrated press conference.
"Unbelievable," says McIntyre, who has chastised the IPCC for
having the "gall" to institutionalize a process that will generate
enormous political pressure for action before the full details are
made public. "Words fail me."
Gordon McBean, a former Environment Canada official now at the
University of Western Ontario, says the IPCC process could be more
open and streamlined. "I think the process has actually become overly
bureaucratic," says McBean.
"But I don't think the present process is controlled by
government as some people argue," says McBean.
McBean headed the Canadian delegation to the 1995 IPCC
negotiations that concluded the balance of evidence suggests "a
discernable human influence" on the global climate. The line helped
lead to the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement that aims to,
but has so far failed, to curb total global emissions.
This time around McBean is a reviewer for the upcoming IPCC
assessment on the impacts of climate change and the need to adapt.
He says the more than 180 countries in the United Nations are
party to the IPCC process and have the right to comment on Friday's
summary, as long as the document stays true to the science.
"They all legitimately can participate," says McBean, who is
unaware of any other documents that undergoes such intense review,
debate and editing.
"Not that I know of," says McBean, who like many of his
colleagues is hoping this week's report will jolt the world into
making "significant" emission reductions.
*********************
(NEWS 4) Indonesia could lose 2,000 islands to global warming by 2030
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200701300312.htm
Jakarta, Jan 30. (AP): Rising sea levels could inundate about
2,000 Indonesian islands by 2030, and rice shortages are expected
next year due to wild weather blamed on climate change, the
Environment Minister said on Monday.
The assessment by Rachmat Witoelar was the Government's bleakest,
yet of global warming's potential effects on the mostly poor
Southeast Asian nation of about 18,000 islands, most of them
unpopulated.
``It is very, very serious,'' Witoelar said at a news conference
attended by Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. climate
treaty secretariat.
Witoelar said, respected scientific studies showed about 2,000
islands would be swallowed by rising waters by 2030. He did not say
whether the threatened islands were inhabited or not.
Delayed rains this year, followed by a hot spell, also hurt farmers.
``It is feared there will be a lack of rice production next year
because of the changes in the weather and because the farmers are not
used to this,'' Witoelar said.
De Boer was in Jakarta to discuss a major U.N. climate change
meeting later this year on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Environment Ministers from 80 countries will meet there to begin
talks on what actions the world must take after the first commitment
period of the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.
********************
(NEWS 5) New Climate Disclosure Standards Board launched -- company
climate risk reporting
www.ceres.org (Ceres website), www.incr.com (Investor Network
on Climate Risk website)
Dear climate-l colleagues -
I am writing to inform you about the new international
partnership of seven organizations announced today at the World
Economic Forum to establish a generally accepted framework for
climate risk-related reporting by corporations.
Founding members of the institutional consortium, the Climate
Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), include the California Climate
Action Registry, Carbon Disclosure Project, Ceres, The Climate Group,
International Emissions Trading Association, World Economic Forum
Global Greenhouse Gas Register and World Resources Institute. CDSB
member organizations have agreed to align their core requests for
information from companies in order to ensure that they report
climate change-related information in a standardized way that
facilitates easier comparative analysis by investors, managers and
the public. The focus will be on the disclosure of the following key
climate issues in company annual reports: 1) Total emissions, 2)
Assessment of the physical risks of climate change, 3) Assessment of
the regulatory risks of climate change, and 4) Strategic analysis of
climate risk and emissions management
An advisory committee is being formed that will include
industrial, financial services and accounting firms as well as other
key stakeholders. In preparation, CDSB members met in Davos with
representatives of Alcan; American International Group; Capital
Group; Duke Energy Corporation; Ernst and Young; Royal Dutch/Shell;
JP Morgan Chase; PricewaterhouseCoopers; SUN Group; Swiss Re and
Tokyo Electric Power as well as United Kingdom Environment Minister
Milliband; California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez; and United
Nations Environment Programme Director General Achim Steiner.
If anyone has questions, please let me know.
Chris Fox, Director of Investor Programs, Ceres, fox at ceres.org
********************
(NEWS 6) New Climate Report Too Rosy, Experts Say
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/01/29/
new_climate_report_to
o_rosy_experts_say/ Or: http://tinyurl.com/2utbhn
the Boston Globe (Registration Required) - WASHINGTON -- Later
this week in Paris, climate scientists will issue a dire forecast for
the planet that warns of slowly rising sea levels and higher
temperatures. But that may be the sugarcoated version.
Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative
report on climate change foresee smaller sea level rises than were
projected in 2001 in the last report. Many top U.S. scientists reject
these rosier numbers. Those calculations don't include the recent,
and dramatic, melt-off of big ice sheets in two crucial locations.
They "don't take into account the gorillas -- Greenland and
Antarctica," said Ohio State University earth sciences professor
Lonnie Thompson, a polar ice specialist. "I think there are
unpleasant surprises as we move into the 21st century."
********************
(NEWS 7) World Scientists Near Consensus on Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/world/30climate.html Or:
http://tinyurl.com/2bq62y
New York Times (Registration Required) - PARIS, Jan. 29 -
Scientists from across the world gathered Monday to hammer out the
final details of an authoritative report on climate change that is
expected to project centuries of rising temperatures and sea levels
unless there are curbs in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases
that trap heat in the atmosphere.
Scientists involved in writing or reviewing the report say it is
nearly certain to conclude that there is at least a 90 percent chance
that human- caused emissions are the main factor in warming since
1950. The report is the fourth since 1990 from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, which is overseen by the United Nations.
The report, several of the authors said, will describe a growing
body of evidence that warming is likely to cause a profound
transformation of the planet. Three large sections of the report will
be forthcoming during the year. The first will be a summary for
policy makers and information on basic climate science, which is
expected to be issued on Friday.
**********************
(NEWS 8) On Global Warming, What US Can Learn from Europe
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p02s01-usec.html Or: http://
tinyurl.com/38fuow
Christian Science Monitor - Momentum is building in the United
States to fight global warming. And the most popular proposal to do
that, at the moment, is through a nationwide "cap and trade" system.
At least three major Senate bills incorporate the idea. Large
corporations, including big oil firms that until recently opposed
such regulation, are backing the approach in theory. On Friday, the
United Nations is slated to release a key report on the scientific
consensus on global warming, which will put even more pressure on
nations to act, analysts suggest.
But the real trick to effective legislation is in its details, a
lesson that the European Union (EU) has learned the hard way as it
prepares to cut greenhouse-gas emissions next year under the Kyoto
treaty. So many companies emit so much carbon dioxide that the
potential market for emissions trading is huge. Missteps could be
costly, involving billions of dollars in unwitting subsidies or
penalties for industries.
***********************
(NEWS 9) Lawmakers hear of interference in global warming science;
presidential hopefuls speak out.
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press - WASHINGTON — Federal
scientists have been pressured by the White House to play down global
warming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats' first
investigative hearing since taking control of Congress. The hearing
focused on allegations White House officials for years have
micromanaged the government's climate programs and have closely
controlled what scientists have been allowed to tell the public.
"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to
mislead the public about climate change," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-
Calif. Waxman is chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform
Committee and a critic of the Bush administration's environmental
policies, including its views on climate.
Climate change also was a leading topic in the Senate, where
presidential contenders for 2008 lined up at a hearing called by Sen.
Barbara Boxer. They expounded — and at times tried to outdo each
other — on why they believed Congress must act to reduce heat-
trapping "greenhouse" gases.
"This is a problem whose time has come," Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, D-N.Y., proclaimed.
"This is an issue over the years whose time has come," echoed
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said "for decades far too many have
ignored the warning" about climate change. "Will we look back at
today and say this was the moment we took a stand?"
At the House hearing, two private advocacy groups produced a
survey of 279 government climate scientists showing that many of them
say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at
downplaying the climate threat. Their complaints ranged from a
challenge to using the phrase "global warming" to raising uncertainty
on issues on which most scientists basically agree, to keeping
scientists from talking to the media.
The survey and separate interviews with scientists "has brought
to light numerous ways in which U.S. federal climate science has been
filtered, suppressed and manipulated in the last five years,"
Francesca Grifo, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, told the committee. Grifo's group, along with the
Government Accountability Project, which helps whistle-blowers,
produced the report.
Drew Shindell, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, said that climate scientists frequently have been
dissuaded from talking to the media about their research, though
NASA's restrictions have been eased. Prior to the change, interview
requests of climate scientists frequently were "routed through the
White House" and then turned away or delayed, said Shindell. He
described how a news release on his study forecasting a significant
warming in Antarctica was "repeatedly delayed, altered and watered
down" at the insistence of the White House.
Some Republican members of the committee questioned whether
science and politics ever can be kept separate. "I am no climate-
change denier," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the top Republican
on the committee, but he questioned whether "the issue of
politicizing science has itself become politicized." "The mere
convergence of politics and science does not itself denote
interference," said Davis.
Administration officials were not called to testify. In the past
the White House has said it has only sought to inject balance into
reports on climate change. President Bush has acknowledged concerns
about global warming, but he strongly opposes mandatory caps of
greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that approach would be too costly.
Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of
Colorado who was invited by GOP lawmakers, said "the reality is that
science and politics are intermixed." Pielke maintained that
"scientific cherry picking" can be found on both sides of the climate
debate. He took a swipe at the background memorandum Waxman had
distributed and maintained that it exaggerated the scientific
consensus over the impact of climate change on hurricanes.
Waxman and Davis agreed the administration had not been
forthcoming in providing documents to the committee that would shed
additional light on allegations of political interference in climate
science. "We know that the White House possesses documents that
contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to
mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global
warming and minimize the potential danger," said Waxman, adding that
he is "not trying to obtain state secrets."
At Boxer's Senate hearing, her predecessor as chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.,
had his own view of the science. There is "no convincing scientific
evidence" that human activity is causing global warming, declared
Inhofe, who once called global warming a hoax. "We all know the
Weather Channel would like to have people afraid all the time."
"I'll put you down as skeptical," replied Boxer.
**********************
(NEWS 10) France Tells U.S. to Sign Climate Pacts or Face Tax
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/europe/01climate.html
http://tinyurl.com/324p59
New York Times (Registration Required) - PARIS, Jan. 31 -
President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign
both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take
effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012. He said that he
welcomed last week's State of the Union address in which President
Bush described climate change as a "serious challenge" and
acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor
emissions cuts.
But he warned that if the United States did not sign the
agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that
have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force
compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for
American goods.
"A carbon tax is inevitable," Mr. Chirac said. "If it is
European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the
same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries
that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay."
***************************************************
Summer Programs, Courses, Internships, Meetings, Opportunities
(MEETINGS 1) International Young Scholar Network for Earth Systems
Science - Third Workshop - June 2-5, 2007 - Bristol (UK)
http:///ww.aimes.ucar.edu/activities/YSN/2007_UK/YSN_BRISTOL.shtml
This small workshop will focus on understanding decision making
on land-use issues, in order to move towards modelling these
processes in Earth System Models. We encourage interdisciplinary
applicants from the natural and social sciences, economics, engineers
and scholars from the humanities with research interests in the Earth
system. The goal of the YSN workshop will be a manuscript reviewing
the state-of-art in decision-making in land-use modelling and its
impacts on biogeochemistry and climate from an Earth’s System
perspective, and prioritise future research topics. Participants will
be expected to write whitepapers before the workshop, and continue
finalizing the manuscript after the workshop.
AIMES is a Core Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere
Project (IGBP). Approximately, 25 young scholars (within 10 years of
Ph.D.) will be supported to attend the YSN meeting, pending funding.
To apply, send your CV, statement of research interests and a letter
of recommendation from your supervisor or department head to
marko.scholze at bristol.ac.uk by February 28, 2007.
***************************************************
Jobs
Planktonnet: Great listserv for aquatic-science jobs
To subscribe to the list, send an empty email to:
planktonnet-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
Or, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planktonnet/ and click on
'Join this group'
********************
(JOB 1) Postdoc - Tropical Climate Change - Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences - University of Miami, FL (USA)
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at the
University of Miami invites applications for a post-doctoral research
assistant in Tropical Climate Change. This position involves the use
of satellite observations and a hierarchy of atmospheric and coupled
climate models to investigate decadal to centennial changes in the
tropical atmospheric circulation and their connection to tropical
cloud feedbacks. The successful candidate should have a background in
climate and experience in analyzing satellite data and/or climate
model simulations. The position is being offered for one year with
the possibility of renewal for up to two additional years.
Review of the applications will begin immediately and continue
until the position is filled. Applicants should send their Curriculum
Vitae and a list of three references to: Amy Clement, Rosenstiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway,
Miami, FL 33149. For further information please contact Dr. Clement
by phone: (305) 421-4846 or email: aclement at rsmas.miami.edu
********************
(JOB 2) Post Doc - Participatory Appraisal of EU climate change
policies - The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) - Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam – (The Netherlands)
The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) is looking for a
researcher in environmental science, social science, or policy
studies to join the work on the Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies:
Supporting European Climate Policy (ADAM) project that is funded by
the European Union. The contract will be conditional of availability
of funding.
The ADAM project: ADAM - ADaptation And Mitigation Strategies:
Supporting European Climate Policy – is an Integrated Project funded
by the European Commission under FP6, which started in March 2006.
The ADAM project aims to give insight into the synergies and
conflicts that exist between adaptation and mitigation policies.
Crucially, ADAM aims to support EU policy development in the next
stage of the development of the Kyoto Protocol, in particular
negotiations around a post-2012 global climate policy regime, and
will inform the emergence of new adaptation strategies for Europe.
The main impact of the ADAM project will be to improve the quality
and relevance of scientific contributions to the development and
evaluation of climate change policy options within the European
Commission. This will help the Commission to deliver on its current
medium-term climate policy objectives and help inform its development
of a longer-term climate strategy.
Tasks: The post will take a pivotal role in the ongoing work in
the ADAM project to develop and apply a highly innovative new
methodology for the appraisal of climate change policy options. This
Policy Appraisal Framework (PAF) makes use of participatory methods,
modelling tools and policy analysis approaches, in order to bring
together diverse information about the impacts and implications of
particular climate change policy options. The key part of the
development is to integrate the various elements (building blocks)
into participatory appraisal, and support case studies in their
application of the PAF. In particular, this post will apply the PAF
to the case study of the European electricity sector, through
appraising current proposals by the EU Commission and other European
policy actors. (The other major ADAM case studies focus on EU
development assistance, the post-2012 international climate regime,
and regional policy.) This task involves a structured process of
exploring and appraising policy options in deliberative exercises
with relevant stakeholders of the European electricity sector, and
evaluating the results.
Requirements: We are looking for an innovative and forward
thinking researcher with a formal academic training to PhD level in a
social, environmental or policy science discipline. Candidates should
have previous academic research experience in the areas of policy
analysis, institutions, and participatory integrated assessment of
climate change. In addition to these core skills, it will be an
advantage to have knowledge of European climate change policy, in
particular of the electricity sector. Also, the candidate should take
into account that the project implies a fair amount of travelling
through Europe. Besides excellent research skills, we would prefer
someone who is highly organised, a good team worker, who can work
independently, who has excellent verbal and written communication
skills in English, and who is confident in networking with a wide
range of scientists and other stakeholders involved in climate
policy. Candidates with recent direct research experience on policy
issues regarding the electricity sector, at the international, EU or
national level are especially welcome to apply.
Salary: The position will be made on a 0,8 fte basis, in salary
scale 11 (which, on a full time appointment, ranges from 3024 to 4140
euro per month). The appointment will be for 2 years.
Additional information: Informal enquiries regarding this post
can be obtained from Dr. Marleen van de Kerkhof at
marleen.van.de.kerkhof at ivm.vu.nl, or 31-(0)20-5989531. Please also
have a look at the project's website: http://www.adamproject.eu/
Applications: Written applications including a CV should be
addressed within 2 weeks after this announcement (editor note: the
website listed this news as dated 01/02/07) to the Vrije
Universiteit, dr. J.M.R.M. Neutelings, Managing Director, Faculty of
Earth and Life Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The
Netherlands (the vacancy number 1.2007.00030 should be mentioned on
the letter and on the envelop) or email to: falw-vacature at falw.vu.nl.
*********************
(JOB 3) Postdoctoral fellowship - International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis (IIASA) - Vienna, (Austria)
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/YSP/pdoc/index.html
The application deadline is February 15, 2007.
IIASA is an international institution, supported by eighteen
governments, that supports international teams of researchers engaged
in studies aimed at providing policy insight on issues of regional
and global importance.
Candidates for the IIASA Postdoctoral Program can apply to work
with any of IIASA's sixteen research programs or special projects.
(Overview of IIASA's research activities.) An essential part of the
on-line application is a research plan outlining the intended work at
IIASA and a discussion of the relevance of the planned research for
IIASA's agenda. Applicants are encouraged to contact the leader of
the IIASA program of interest as they prepare their applications.
Applicants must have an advanced university degree equivalent to a
Ph.D at the time of taking up the post-doc position, a proven record
of research accomplishments, and a solid working knowledge of
English. The typical period for IIASA-funded postdoctoral support is
12-24 months.
It is an excellent postdoctoral opportunity for researchers from
natural and social sciences, mathematics, and engineering who are
interested working on global change issues. We want to spread the
word about this great opportunity as widely as possible. Please help
by forwarding this announcement to your committee members and
colleagues who might know appropriate candidates.
To learn more about IIASA, consult the IIASA Website
(www.iiasa.ac.at). In addition, an October 13, 2006 Science profile
of IIASA researcher Brian O'Neill can be accessed from the U.S. NMO
website, http://www7.nationalacademies.org/usnc-iiasa/index.html. US
IIASA NMO website: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/usnc-iiasa/
index.html
**************************************************
This newsletter has been developed by C. Susan Weiler to distribute
information of potential interest to recent PhDs engaged in
interdisciplinary aquatic science or climate-change research, and to
build an international sense of community among recent grads. It
provides an international forum for the exchange of information and
opinions regarding research, professional and social issues. The
views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the
funding agencies or sponsoring societies. Dr. Weiler reserves the
right to edit or reject material submitted to the list.
Please submit announcements of interest to recent PhDs to
phd at whitman.edu. Send a short message in the body of an e-mail
message, and link to any appropriate websites. Do not send attachments.
Moving? Send address changes to dialog at whitman.edu or
disccrs at whitman.edu
**********
C. Susan Weiler, Ph.D.
Office for Earth System Studies Tel: 509-527-5948
Whitman College Fax: 509-527-5961
Walla Walla, WA 99362
weiler at whitman.edu
Programs for Recent PhDs http://aslo.org/phd.html
DISCCRS poster http://www.aslo.org/phd/disccrsposter.pdf
Workshop Report, Meeting the Needs of
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Graduates in a
Changing Global Environment
http://marcus.whitman.edu/~weilercs/biocomplexity/
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