Climate Change: Health and Disease Threats | The Forum at HSPH

Harvard University

Published on Dec 17, 2015

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris has produced a landmark agreement to slow global warming. Among the conference’s discussions, though, the health impacts of climate change have featured less prominently on the agenda than other concerns. Yet, droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution related to climate change produce rippling effects that impact food production, infectious disease spread, chronic illnesses, and more. Dwindling resources force people to leave their homes and abandon traditional lifestyles, creating populations on the move with serious health impacts. In this Forum, public health and policy experts picked up where COP21 left off, taking on the critical piece of health within the climate change conversation.

Presented December 16, 2015 in Collaboration with The GroundTruth Project. Part of The Andelot Series on Current Science Controversies.

Watch the entire series from The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at www.ForumHSPH.org.

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Inequality and Climate Change: Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern in Conversation

The Graduate Center, CUNY

Published on Apr 29, 2015

On Earth Day 2015, Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern, two of the world’s leading experts on economics and the environment, joined in conversation about the intersection of climate change and inequality.

Presented on April 22, 2015, by GC Public Programs. Cosponsored by the Luxembourg Income Study Center, the Advanced Research Collaborative, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

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Presidential Panel on Climate Change

Harvard University

Published on Apr 16, 2015

Experts from the worlds of science, government, economics, business, and history gather in Sanders Theatre for a wide-ranging panel discussion on how society in general and universities in particular can best confront the perils posed by climate change.

Monday, April 13, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. in Sanders Theatre

Moderator:
Charlie Rose
Host and Executive Producer, Charlie Rose, PBS
Co-anchor, CBS This Morning

Panelists:
Joseph Aldy
Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Christopher Field
Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Stanford University

Rebecca Henderson
McArthur University Professor, Harvard University

John Holdren
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, The White House

Richard Newell
Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics, Duke University

Naomi Oreskes
Professor of the History of Science, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Daniel Schrag
Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

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Kids versus Fossil Fuels: A Chat with a Teenage Activist – Scientific American

Nelson Kanuk, Kelsey Juliana, and John Thiebes. Credit: Sam Beebe/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Scientific American spoke with Kelsey Juliana, one of the 21 kids who are suing the U.S. government over climate change

By Jennifer Hackett on April 15, 2016

A group of 21 climate-conscious kids is suing the U.S. government over global warming, accusing the defendants of endangering the young plaintiffs’ lives, liberty and property via the extensive use of fossil fuels. They are backed by the environmental advocacy group Our Children’s Trust, which has supported similar lawsuits in other states, but this is the first time such an action has come this far, after a federal judge ruled that they have constitutional grounds to press their case.

The government and three fossil fuel industry trade associations had filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the U.S. has no duty to protect natural resources at the federal level and that the public trust doctrine—a foundational principle of many environmental and natural resource laws—only applies on the state level. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon ruled on April 8 that the government is subject to the doctrine, and that as trustee of the nation’s resources it must protect them.

Columbia University climate scientist James Hansen, a prominent researcher-turned-activist whose 1988 congressional testimony on climate change helped bring the issue into the national spotlight, is the only plaintiff on the case over 19 years of age. Hanson, who is 75, first became involved with Our Children’s Trust in 2010, when the organization asked him to help file a case against the government by contributing the scientific basis for the lawsuit. That case made it to district court level in the District of Columbia but was ultimately dismissed for not making the constitutional basis for the case clear enough. “This time we have got it right, and I am confident that we will win,” Hansen says.

Kelsey Juliana—at 19 the oldest of the “youth plaintiffs,” as they describe themselves—has already spent much of her life in environmental activism.* She has participated in the Great March for Climate Action as well as the 2014 People’s Climate March held in New York City and has been a longtime advocate for climate change awareness in Oregon. Now a student at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., she is majoring in environmental studies, focusing on environmental education and policy while continuing her work with Our Children’s Trust and other environmental activism groups.

…(read more).

Surveilling the Scientists

greenman3610

Published on Apr 21, 2016

Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Lamar Smith is accusing scientists of falsifying key evidence of a warming planet, even as global temperatures spike to frightening new highs.

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Media

The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children

Z – Health Documentaries

Published on Sep 16, 2014

An award winning documentary film produced for German television by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn.
The film exposes the use and impact of radioactive weapons during the current war against Iraq. The story is told by citizens of many nations.
It opens with comments by two British veterans, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called depleted uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children.
Dr. Siegwart-Horst Gunther, a former colleague of Albert Schweitzer, and Tedd Weyman of the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) traveled to Iraq, from Germany and Canada respectively, to assess uranium contamination in Iraq.

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Invisible War – Depleted Uranium and the politics of radiation

Martin Meissonnier

Published on Oct 1, 2012

A film by Martin Meissonnier produced by Roger Trilling

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Can Oil Companies Save the World from Global Warming? – Scientific American

Oil firms might pay to use CO2 emissions from power plants, but low petroleum prices could doom the effort

• By David Biello on April 19, 2016

ENHANCED OIL: Pumping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide underground can scour more oil out of already tapped reservoirs. Credit: © David Biello

RALEIGH, Miss.—Kevin Macumber wanted to be a forester. Today he manages about 4,000 acres of longleaf pine in Mississippi—not for the timber, but for what lies far beneath the woods. It’s black gold: oil, deep underground. And the key to getting it out is the same molecule that lets all those trees grow: carbon dioxide.

“Another day in paradise,” says Macumber as we meet at a Chevron gas station in southeastern Mississippi, about the closest thing to a landmark around here. We’re headed to the old trailer home that’s become the operational headquarters for Tellus Operating Group, a wildcat oil company with some old oil fields in this neck of the woods. I follow his black Chevy pickup down country byways until we finally turn off on a dirt road that winds through forests to the company trailer, where the coffee is fresh and Macumber can banter with a few of his workers on this warm sunny day.

The secret about old oil reservoirs below the surface is that they still have oil, sometimes a lot, but it no longer comes out easily. Companies can pump large volumes of CO2, piped in from natural deposits belowground, down into the wells, forcing out the oil that would otherwise stay put. Macumber used to work at Occidental, one of the large oil companies that helped pioneer this “enhanced oil recovery” technique in Texas. But now he’s helped found Tellus—named after one of the Roman Earth goddesses—to do the same thing in Mississippi.

Right now, Tellus gets its CO2 from a deposit called the Jackson Dome in western Mississippi, and other oil companies are using a similar approach at hundreds of old wells around the country. But Tellus is one of two U.S. oil companies that hopes to try something entirely new, any day now. Instead of piping in natural CO2, it will use the greenhouse gas captured at a coal-fired power plant just completed nearly 100 miles north of here and send it down into the reservoir, pushing oil out and leaving the greenhouse gas deep below, safely locked away from the atmosphere, so it does not add to global warming.

…(read more).

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Supporting climate compatible development – CDKN

Our mission

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network supports decision-makers in designing and delivering climate compatible development. We do this by combining research, advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. We work in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally. We hold strongly to the ideals of human development and environmental sustainability.

Who we are

The Climate Development Knowledge Network is managed by an alliance of organisations led by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), and including Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano, LEAD International, LEAD Pakistan, the Overseas Development Institute, and SouthSouthNorth. Follow the links below to find out more about us:

• The Alliance
• Governance structure
• Network Council
• Management team
• CDKN Roster of Experts

What we do

CDKN is able to provide support through its alliance organisations and procure the best services from around the world. We strive to deliver the highest quality technical advice, forge uniquely effective partnerships, and drive the latest and best thinking on climate compatible development.

Within the broad scope of climate compatible development, we work across four strategic themes:

• Climate compatible development strategies and plans
• Improving developing countries’ access to climate finance
• Strengthening resilience through climate-related disaster risk management
• Supporting climate negotiators from the least developed and most vulnerable countries.

How we are funded

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network is currently funded over seven-year period from March 2010 to April 2017 by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS). We are changing from a dual Anglo-Dutch programme to becoming a multi-donor funded entity to ensure the long-term sustainability of CDKN beyond 2017. We are currently looking for new funding partners and collaborations – find out more here.

How we work

Technical assistance
CDKN’s Technical assistance service provides tailored and demand-driven support to developing country decision-makers in the design and delivery of climate compatible development policies and practices, and acts as a catalyst to maximise the impact of increasing flows of donor climate and development funding.

Advocacy
We work with the leaders and negotiators of developing countries to help them become better informed and more skilled at negotiating, as well as to become more active, networked and influential actors in the international climate change talks. Only once they have a strong voice and can exert their influence in the international negotiating arena will more robust, progressive and equitable outcomes be possible for all parties.

Research
CDKN supports a wide range of demand-led, policy-relevant, applied research projects, led and implemented by a wide range of universities, private sector partners, NGOs and international agencies. We look for projects which not only demonstrate scientific excellence, but which also clearly respond to identified developing country needs and demand and promise high policy impact. We value innovative, game-changing research within the context of climate compatible development.

Independent Evaluation

To read independent reviews of CDKN’s work, please visit our Independent Evaluations page.

CDKN Annual Report 2015

Read about how our country-level work is making a significant contribution to developing countries and delivering value for money for the UK and Dutch taxpayers who generously support the work we do.

Download our 2015 Annual Report to read more about what we do.

Here, CDKN’s national advisors share their perspectives on how their countries will deliver the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs):

· “Pakistan has a long way to go to get from intended to implemented” – Ali T. Sheikh

· “No turning back after Paris” – Sam Bickersteth

· After Paris: A shift in Colombia’s climate change conversation – Claudia Martinez

· After Paris: “Going from intended to implemented, that is the question” – Margaret Kamau, Kenya

· After Paris: “About money and determination”, a view from Mihir Bhatt, India

· After Paris: Perspective from Ram Chandra Khanal, Nepal

· Follow Paris Agreement with green investment deals – Ari Huhtala

· Paris Agreement: Opportunities and challenges for developing countries – Munjurul Hannan Khan, Bangladesh

CDKN

responded to developing countries’ requests for technical assistance on their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions before the Paris Summit: you can read about it on www.cdkn.org/indc CDKN will work intensively in partnership with others to help put the plans into action.

Please contribute your comments to these blogs (find comment boxes at the bottom of each) and keep visiting our landing page: www.cdkn.org/after-paris-perspectives for new additions to the series.

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Beyond Nuclear – Chernobyl+30 Fukushima+5

Leading international experts and compelling short films will headline a May 3rd Beyond Nuclear event in Washington, DC to mark the anniversaries of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. Full program.

Beyond Nuclear and the Goethe-Institut, DC will co-host an afternoon and evening program that will mark the 5th anniversary of Fukushima and the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl. The legacy of both nuclear power plant disasters has included a marked increase in radiation-induced diseases and mutations, as found by some of the world’s leading researchers, several of whom will be speaking at the event.

The event takes place at the Goethe-Institut, DC, 1990 K St. NW (event entrance on 20th St.) The afternoon panel presentations run from 2pm to 5pm. The evening program is 7:30pm to 9pm. All events are free and open to the public. No registration required.

…(read more).

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