SNRE to host national summit on climate change

The School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) is hosting a three-day summit—the first of its kind in the nation—focused on helping the United States prepare for the impact of climate change and the ongoing alterations in temperature, precipitation, sea level rise and species range.

Invited experts to the National Summit on Coping with Climate Change May 8-10 will identify adaptation needs in four critical areas: public health, energy industry, water quality and fisheries. Experts will develop options for actions that can be taken at the local, state and national levels to help prepare cities, counties and states as well as government, business and industry.

Experts include: Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center; Susan Teirney, former assistant secretary of energy; and Robert Corell, director of the Global Change Program, The Heinz Center.

Participants will focus on how different organizations can anticipate and adapt to near- and long-term change. They also will identify a research agenda for government and academia.

Dean Rosina Bierbaum announced the summit as the University's commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, a non-partisan effort to devise and implement solutions to world challenges.

"It is urgent we initiate this conversation with key stakeholders to examine what management, technology and policy options can help agencies and organizations deal with changes in average conditions, as well as prepare for increases in extreme events, such as floods and droughts," says Bierbaum, former director for environment at the White House Science Office.

Faculty from SNRE, the School of Public Health, the College of Engineering, the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute and the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute have worked with national and international experts to develop the agenda.

External sponsorship has come from Google, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of San Francisco, the Frey Foundation of Grand Rapids, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Sessions May 8 and 10 are open to the public. For a schedule go to www.snre.umich.edu/climate_change/documents/climate_summit_prelim_public_agenda.pdf.

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