Live-blogging the Dickinson College International Climate Symposium, day 1

This week I’m participating in an exciting conference, the Science-Based Choices for Climate Action, Insights from the IPCC 6th Assessment Report.  I look forward to soaking up presentations, and also to feedback from my presentation about higher education’s future.

I‘m tweeting the event (hashtag #DsonICS22) and hope to live blog it here.  I’ll update this during the day.

The morning crowd is an interesting mix of college students, graduates, faculty, and staff, with visiting scholars, activists, and leaders. Bonus points: getting to see the excellent Ed Webb and other fine Dickinson friends.

A student, then the college president, quickly launched the program.

Hoesung Lee, Chair, IPCC, gave the opening talk. HE started by outline civilizational constraints, arguing that humanity simply has to live within the carbon budget, within a closed system.  Which is “a very tough mandate.”  Yet within those constraints, we can and should do many things: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, changing our behavior, increasing carbon pricing, and taking advantage of increasing urbanization.  If we do things the right way, reaching net zero by 2050 will launch a new stage in human history.

Webb offered this summary:

Key terms from opening address: compounding risks; cascading risks; hard limits to adaptation; path dependence; behavioral & socio-cultural change; urbanization; upgrading infrastructure; conservation of ecosystem services; governance; closed system #DsonICS22

— Ed Webb (@edwebb) October 24, 2022

Key terms from opening address: compounding risks; cascading risks; hard limits to adaptation; path dependence; behavioral & socio-cultural change; urbanization; upgrading infrastructure; conservation of ecosystem services; governance; closed system

Dr. Neil Leary, Director, Center for Sustainability Education, Dickinson College, then introduced the program and its first panel.  Leary emphasized the combination of global and local perspectives.

Sean Shultz, Mayor of Carlisle, Pennsylvania spoke  to growing local awareness of climate issues, while also describing the contours of the local community.  “Residents are coming to realize the impacts of climate change.” Shultz mentions conflicts between state and local authority.  Carlisle did a greenhouse gas inventory, working with Dickinson, then passed a plan to reduce emissions over the next three decades.  Key points: lots of warehousing, so use those buildings’ roofs to host solar; improve energy efficiency for older housing stock; increased electrification of heating and cooling; getting the word out about PA Power Switch.

Christopher Nafe, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, spoke about the programs that DEP offers. Projects and services include benchmarking, feasibility studies, helping transition vehicles away from fossil fuels, helping local governments identify greenhouse gas emissions.  DEP also works with students, giving them the chance to work with local and state governments.  One challenge: convincing political authorities to do very long term planning.  Yet flood plains are flooding more often (redefine what a 100-year flood means).  “Climate change is a costly new reality for townships and boroughs.”

Greg Czarnecki, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, describes changes to local flora and fauna, including the state tree, the eastern hemlock. Season schedules are changing. New mosquito-born diseases (West Nile) are appearing.  A pest on the hemlock is expanding, killing those trees; this reduces shade on water, which then reduces brook trout populations. So the department identifies hemlock which are pest-resistant, as well as tree species which can supplement the hemlock’s functions.  They are also redesigning culverts (pipes under roads) to change their output.

Aisha Rodriguez, a recent Dickinson graduate, and member of the Rose Walters Prize Committee, spoke to environmental justice at the local level.  Legacies of redlining shape how communities experience climate change unequally.  She also describes how Puerto Rico grapples with the crisis as a US territory.

After a short break a second panel then began, on Demystifying the Work of the IPCC.  One panelist, Saleemul Huq, Independent University Bangladesh, couldn’t join remotely, as a tropical cyclone was crippling local internet access.  Karen Seto, Yale School of the Environment and IPCC Working Group 3 author, introduced the IPCC report, its history, and how it was developed.  Seto broke down group functions into science, impact, and mitigation.  Alexander Ruane, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and IPCC Working Group 1 author, described the wide range of authors involved.

Neil Leary asked panelists to describe assessments.  Seto described a key: report policy recommendations are “policy relevant, but not policy prescriptive.”  Next, discussions of IPCC people learning how to better work with news media.  One challenge is bringing together literature and contexts from many national backgrounds, while making the results universally accessible. Another challenge is making sure that the global South/developed countries are fairly represented.  Seto described the logistics of having a global group work through the summary for policymakers report language, live, line by line… then how they shifted the process entirely online during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leary asked about the role of politics in the report creation. Ruane described political details, such as settling on contested geographical names and pushing some content to footnotes.  Seto mentioned authors seeing certain findings as not relevant to their local issues, then hearing arguments about messaging details, rather than the science they express.

An audience question asks if the IPCC should be more frank, and “less politically correct.”  Ruane distinguishes between scientists and the IPCC, emphasizing the latter’s carefully established reputation for objectivity.  Another question asked about language use, and the authors described using the United Nations’ five official languages.  Question: what is the IPCC doing to make the science more accessible?  Seto notes that deciding where to live is crucial, and commends us to focus on young people (a local high school group is there). Ruane describes new infographics and interactive tools, along with fact sheets in more languages.  There’s also a report just for actuaries in the insurance world.

(afternoon session notes coming up)