Summer 2010 Climate Alert
Adapting to a Changing Climate [ PDF ]
In this Newsletter:
Climate Institute News
Tickell Network expanding rapidly in Mexico
A year and a half after Climate Institute’s the first greenhouse monitoring measurements atop Sierra Negra, 4550 meters above sea level, in Mexico, the Interactive Climate Awareness Network is rapidly growing across the country. On July 22 Morelos Governor Marco Antonio Adame Castillo and Federal Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quezada inaugurated the Tickell Network Interactive Climate Outreach Centre Parque Ecologico San Miguel Acapantzingo in Cuernavaca. This climate theatre joins two others—one in Flor del Bosque Park in the State of Puebla and a second at Mexico City Museum of Natural History and the Environment. Work is underway in the City of Veracruz on a fourth climate theatre. On the August 4th Global Forum he hosted in Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico, at which Al Gore, Mario Molina, Margie Simon de Ortiz and Luis Manuel Guerra spoke, Governor Enrique Pena Nieto announced that his state has asked the Climate Institute to build four climate theatres within his state. Plans are underway to extend the Tickell Network to a number of other states –to both Acapulco and Chilpancingo in the State of Guerrero, Chetumal and Cancun in the State of Quintana Roo, Morelia in the State of Michoacan, Oaxaca in the State of Oaxaca, and Tijuana in the State of Baja California Norte. Luis Roberto Acosta, Director of the Climate Institute’s Mexico and Latin America Program and its entire Global Climate Observation Program, has spearheaded the remarkably rapid growth of the Sir Crispin Tickell Climate Awareness and Response Network. Barbara Hernandez, President of Fundacion Pedro y Elena Hernandez, and an active member of the Climate Institute Board, has played a vital role in the growth of this network linking the world’s highest climate observatory and a series of Climate Outreach Centers, a climate education equivalent of an astronomy planetarium.
Daniel Wildcat book shows how climate savvy of indigenous peoples can guide smart adaptation strategies
Professor Daniel Wildcat, Dean at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas and Convener of the American Indian Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group, in his book Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge: Fulcrum 2010, shows that Native Americans and other indigenous peoples have a wealth of experience in coping with climate and environmental stress.
Prof. Wildcat, a Board member of the Climate Institute, describes how this know how can be vital to humanity in designing anticipatory adaptation strategies. The Working Group that he has sparked has inspired a number of tribal college students to meld indigenous knowledge of coping strategies with mastery of geographic information systems and other tools. Prof. Wildcat also shows how adaptations to the cold have profoundly shaped indigenous cultures in the Arctic, including even language.
Former Climate Institute intern assumes post-doctoral research position at University of Illinois
Michael Ring, who served as an intern at the Institute a decade ago just before completing his senior year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earned his Ph. D in atmospheric sciences in 2008 at MIT and then joined the University of Illinois where he is working closely with internationally renowned research scientist, Michael Schlesinger. Institute President John Topping remarked “Mike Ring is a true polymath. During his internship with us in the summer of 2000 he not only created the climate science and extreme weather sections of climate.org but showed himself an expert on political trivia and sports. Perhaps this shouldn’t have been surprising as he was Editor of the school paper, The Tech, at MIT. Only recently, however, in scanning his page on the University of Illinois site did I discover that he is a Life Master in bridge.”
John-Michael Cross named Director of Research at the Climate Institute
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a Masters Degree from the Climate and Society program at Columbia University, Mr. Cross has worked for the past 18 months at the Climate Institute focused largely on the Global Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative and the Black Carbon Reduction Program. With his new responsibilities he is slated to assume the lead in the Institute’s efforts to highlight win-win opportunities in reduction of emissions of black carbon and short-lived greenhouse gases. This includes an analysis of opportunities within wealthier nations to reduce diesel related emissions of black carbon.
Previous Climate Institute News:
Other Articles in this Newsletter:
A Message From the President: Empowering Potential Victims Instead to be Climate Leaders
An Economic Perspective on Pro-Poor Adaptation to Climate Change
REDD and Blue: A Win-Win with Coastal Wetlands
When the Tipping Point Comes True: Adaptation Strategies for India