climate

The climate change Earth is experiencing today is similar to that during a period of rapid and intense global warming it experienced some 56 million years ago. Understanding the similarities can help scientists evaluate what is happening in today’s warming world, according to Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita. Key to that understanding is figuring out how much oxygen was dissolved in large swaths of the oceans during that period of rapid warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, when average temperatures increased by 5-8o Celsius or 9-14o Fahrenheit in a few thousand years, Thomas…

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Gary Yohe, Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, and senior member of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), discusses in a Dec. 6 issue of The Los Angeles Times the possibilities at the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference In Copenhagen, Denmark. In the article, Yohe says that "many nations would like to see a definitive agreement come out of the Copenhagen conference. But in the absence of climate legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, it is unlikely we will see anything like a binding treaty. Still, significant progress is possible. Copenhagen offers the prospect of agreement on a number of…

Four weeks before the nations meet in Copenhagen to try to avert the catastrophes that global warming may bring, ABC News Correspondent William Blakemore ’65 will identify many surprising psychological factors at play as people in all walks of life deal with the latest "hard news" on climate. Blakemore will speak on "The Many Psychologies of Global Warming," during a talk at 8 p.m. Nov. 3 in Memorial Chapel. He'll explore new definitions of sanity that may pertain, and give examples displaying different "psychologies, as well as manmade global warming's place in "the long history of narcissistic insults to humanity…

During the last 50 years, humans have degraded rivers and lakes through excessive water abstraction, pollution and by over-harvesting aquatic organisms. River flow has been impeded by dams, and floodplains have been converted for agriculture and urban areas. The human population has doubled to nearly 7 billion and, per capita water availability has declined on all continents. During the past 50 years, global climate change has further impacted water resources. On Nov. 7, three climate experts will speak on "Global Environmental Change And Freshwater Resources: Hope For The Best Or Change To Prepare For The Worst?" during the annual Where…

Gary Yohe, the Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, has been appointed to the Adaptation Subcommittee of the Connecticut Governor’s Steering Committee on Climate Change, 2008-2010. He also has been selected to be a member of the National Research Council Committee on America’s Climate Choices: Panel on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change, 2008-2011. The panel will host a Climate Summit in DC at the end of March and provide Congress and the Administration a review of the panel’s "Choices" by the end of the year. A synthetic blueprint will then be created by an umbrella panel. Yohe also helped organize…

Eli Allen ’09 will join youth leaders from across the country to represent the United States at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 14th Conference of Parties. The event will be held Dec. 23 in Poznan, Poland. "My generation will ultimately be responsible for the effects of the decisions made at the negotiations, so it is imperative that we be involved and have representation," says Allen, a College of Social Studies major. "I hope to express the urgency of this moment in our history, where we must realize our common responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of…

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The topic of “Climate Policy: A Progress Report” is the theme of the Fourth Annual Robert Schumann Environmental Studies Symposium "Where on Earth are we Going?" which will be held on Oct. 18. The event begins at 8:30 a.m. in Exley Science Center Room 150, the Tischler Lecture Hall. (more…)

New Research Suggests Ocean May Increase in Oxygen During Warming

Wesleyan Honored for Climate Change Efforts

Faculty Examine Issues Surrounding “Climategate” Report

Yohe Discusses Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Blakemore ’65 Speaks on Psychologies of Global Warming

Freshwater Resources Topic of Where On Earth Are We Going Symposium

Yohe Elected to Governor’s Climate Committee

Senior to Represent US at UN Conference on Climate Change

Climate Change Topic of Photography Exhibit

Climate Policy Topic of Environmental Symposium