Wesleyan Faculty Host “After Climategate” Presentation March 25

A presentation titled, “After Climategate: Rethinking Climate Science and Climate Policy” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 25 in PAC 001. Admission is free and open to the public.

The panel discussion will feature Gary Yohe, Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics and senior member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Joe Rouse, chair of the Science in Society Program, Hedding Professor of Moral Science, professor of philosophy; Suzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental science, director of the Service Learning Center; and Paul Erickson, assistant professor of history, member of the Science in Society Program.

With Rouse moderating, the faculty panelists will examine a variety of issues surrounding the recent news media accounts known as “Climategate” which impugned some of the findings of the IPPC’s 4th Assessment Report.

Yohe’s presentation will include his first-hand experience with the Climategate story, from the initial leaking of private emails of key IPCC members on the Web a month before the U.N.’s Copenhagen conference, to the present. He will also offer quick glimpses at some of the evidence that supports the major conclusions that have not be colored by the controversy. O’Connell will discuss one of the particular points that received scrutiny in the coverage; specifically, an erroneous account of Himalayan glacier melt that found its way into the report. She will also offer hard data on glacier melting across the globe. Erickson will talk about how the ideas of scientific findings and projections mesh with the workings of policy creation and the political process. He will also discuss how this has unfolded in history in general and with this recent issue in particular.

An open question and answer period will follow the panel presentations.

Yohe is also one of four co-signers of an open letter from the IPCC regarding the recent reports of regarding possible errors in the IPCC “Fourth Assessment Report” which can be seen here: open_letter_from_us_scientists_on_climategate: open_letter_from_us_scientists_on_climategate