SPRING 2010 Climate Alert
Moving Beyond the Status Quo [ PDF ]
In this Newsletter:
Climate Institute News
Climate Institute Events, Awards and Recognition in Mexico
From February 10 to 13, 2010, a team of Climate Institute Board, staff and strategic partners participated in a series of events to launch the Sir Crispin Tickell Interactive Network. These events included: the inauguration of the Tickell Climate Theatre at the Mexico City Museum of Natural History and the Environment, performed by Marcelo Ebrard, Chief of Government of Mexico City; a panel at the Miguel Aleman Foundation on climate protection prospects; and the Miguel Aleman Lecture by Dr. Alexander (Sandy) MacDonald, Director of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and inventor of Science On a Sphere (SOS), which is used in 46 climate theatres around the world. In his lecture, Dr. MacDonald discussed the importance of the data gathered at the Tickell High Altitude Climate Observatory throughout 2009. The Climate Institute team, led by Sir Crispin Tickell, Chairman Emeritus, left the next day for Cuernavaca where they visited the soon-to-open Climate Theatre in Parque Ecologica San Miguel Acapantzingo, the third Tickell Network Theatre. On February 12, Francisco Castillo Montemayor, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources of the State of Puebla, had his team of climate experts present the draft state plan for evaluation by an international review panel that included Sir Crispin, Dr. MacDonald, Institute President John Topping, and Luis Roberto Acosta, director of Climate Institute Programs in Mexico and Latin America. The draft Puebla State Plan drew high marks from all reviewers.
Dr. MacDonald gave a tour de force presentation of the capabilities of the SOS climate education system within the Tickell Theatre of Flor del Bosque for a large and eager crowd that included British Ambassador Judith Macgregor, her husband retired Ambassador John Macgregor, and Secretary Castillo Montemayor. The Climate Institute concluded the four days of events with an awards and recognition luncheon in a sylvan outdoor setting in the park. Climate Institute President John Topping recognized Dra. Aurora Elena Ramos, Senior Advisor to the Climate Institute, who received a 2008 Climate Institute award as ”the Patron Saint of the environmental and climate protection movement in Mexico.” Luis Roberto Acosta received the Roger Revelle Memorial Award for Scientific Achievement for spearheading the creation of both the Sir Crispin Tickell Climate Observatory and the 
Tickell Interactive Network on Climate Awareness and Response. William A. (Bill) Nitze, Institute Chairman from Nov 2002 to February 2009, was awarded the John Chafee Memorial Award for Climate Leadership, for his work in the 1980s as Chief US ClimateNegotiator for the State Department in catalyzing the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and his work later as US EPA International Office Chief in promoting US–Mexico environmental cooperation. Barbara Hernandez, President of the Pedro y Elena Hernandez Foundation, a member of the Climate Institute Board was cited for her generosity and vision that made possible both the construction of the Tickell Observatory and the creation of the Tickell Network. Secretary Francisco Castillo Montemayor was recognized for moving Puebla to the forefront among states of the world in climate protection. Fernando Menendez Roa was recognized for his work in taking measurements atop Sierra Negra.
Carlos Diaz Leal, International Liaison of the Climate Institute and a driving force behind the creation of all the Tickell Network Theatres, organized the four days of events. Climate Institute participants from Mexico included Luis Roberto Acosta; Dra. Aurora Elena Ramos; Carlos Diaz Leal; Fernando Menendez Roa and Pablo Alfaro Zecerro, and from the Board, Barbara Hernandez; Margie Simon de Ortiz, Director General of CICEANA; and Luis Manuel Guerra, now an Honorary Member of the Board, who organized the 1991 Presidential Briefing carried out at Los Piños by the Climate Institute on behalf of IPCC and UNEP. Attending from the US were John Topping; Bill Nitze; Corinne Kisner, Director of Operations and Editor-in Chief of Climate Alert; Irene Soler, Senior Fellow; Nasir Khattak, Director of Global Environmental Programs; and Jack Werner, Senior Fellow. Honorary Members of the team, all participating actively in the Network launch, included Sandy MacDonald; Sandy’s wife, Susan MacDonald; Sir Crispin’s daughter, Oriana Tickell de Castello, a resident of Mexico City; and John Topping III, son of the Institute’s President.
GSEII 10th Anniversary Marked at UN Luncheon; Melinda Kimble and Noel Brown Honored
Together with Friends of the United Nations and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the Climate Institute organized a luncheon on May 12, 2010 in the United Nations Delegates Dining Facility to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Global Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative (GSEII). Ambassador Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative to the United Nations of Grenada and Chair of AOSIS; Former Ambassador Angus Friday, Ambassador Williams’ predecessor in both posts and now the point person on clean energy for small island states at the World Bank; Ambassador Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Maldives; and 20 other invitees, including senior officials of UN organizations, OAS and the United Nations Foundation, engaged in a lively two hour discussion. There emerged a strong consensus that GSEII should be expanded in resources and reach, that COP16 would provide an opportunity to build such support, and that the luncheon discussion format with varying topics would be valuable to AOSIS member nations and AOSIS would welcome such an ongoing program. Climate Institute and Friends of the United Nations are seeking support for such an effort.
At the luncheon’s conclusion, Climate Institute President John Topping announced two awards. Melinda Kimble received the Barbara Ward Memorial Award for her work both as a senior official of the US State Department and then of the United Nations Foundation in “inspiring and nurturing the Global Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative.” Clearly touched by this award, Melinda Kimble, now Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation, noted that the English writer and environmental visionary Barbara Ward, had greatly influenced her thinking. Although he was chairing this luncheon as President of the Friends of the United Nations, Dr, Noel J. Brown, a member of the Climate Institute Board for two decades, was surprised to receive the Dr. Bert Bolin Memorial Award for Environmental Leadership and Vision “for inspiring the creation of the Alliance of Small Island States, the Cities for Climate Protection Movement and the IPCC-UNEP Climate Change Briefings.” In making the award, named for the Swedish scientist who first chaired the IPCC, John Topping noted some of Dr. Brown’s other accomplishments, which include inspiring the entertainment community to focus on the environment and showing that indigenous art can be a powerful means of delivering an environmental message. The luncheon ended on a high note with participants determined to make AOSIS a force by COP16 in showing that clean energy transformation can facilitate development.
Previous Climate Institute News:
Other Articles in this Newsletter:
Healthy People, Healthy Planet
Twenty Years After Valdez: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Christiana Figueres Named to Lead Climate Secretariat
Star Homes: Retrofitting American Housing
Mitigating Industrial Black Carbon Through Energy Recycling
Algaeoleum: Fueling the Future
Shore-Based Power: Reducing Idle Ships' Emissions
United States Regulatory Solutions for Reduction of Black Carbon Emissions
Grasslands, Ranchers and Pastoralists Provide Significant Win-Win to Address Global Climate Change