|
The effects of global warming--and how humans can both adapt to the changes it will bring and work to mitigate its effects--are the focus of this year's Townsend Lecture.
Chris Field, a biology professor at Stanford University and director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution, will present "Climate change: Impacts, adaptation, and solutions" at 7 p.m. May 10 in the Law School Auditorium.
The public is invited to attend the free lecture.
"There has been dramatic progress in the past couple of years with states and cities trying to limit greenhouse gases. Companies are asking for help with emission standards," Field said. "Scientific information on climate change has reached a level of sophistication so that there is little debate about whether global warming exists--it's more a question of how far it will progress."
Field sees four major effects of global warming that could worsen in time: rising human fatalities as a result of longer and more severe heat waves; more Class IV and V hurricanes as a result of warmer ocean temperatures; greater storm surge damage from rising sea levels; and loss of endangered species and agricultural crops.
"For instance, wine country could move from the Napa Valley in California to British Columbia with even a modest amount of warming," Field said. "Other plant and animal species might be threatened with habitat loss as a result of global warming."
There is hope for adapting to climate change, particularly if government and business acts now, Field said. Changing the way insurance policies are written, changing the way structures are protected from flood, and changing what farmers will grow to how they manage their crops are all part of the adaptation process.
"We have a whole toolbox to use here, but adaptation to climate change requires a different approach," he said. "We're good at doing things after disaster strikes, but we need to take a proactive approach with climate change. There will be a huge difference in the cost of adapting proactively versus retroactively."
Beyond merely adapting to climate change, Field sees possibilities for solving the global warming crisis. Four options include conservation (doing without some things), efficiency (doing more with the same amount of energy or materials); and technology (including biofuels and wind energy plus carbon capture and storage under the ocean).
An update from the federal Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected in early April that will share the latest evidence of global warming. Though predictions are dire, "we can work now to minimize future climate change," Field said.
3/07
|
Chris Field
