'The Politics of Global Climate Change' 2011 JWAC World Forum
November 10th, 11th and 12th | University of Alaska Southeast
Click here to see this event's poster
The Fall Forum is a multi-day, headliner event. The 2011 Forum focused on the ramifications of rising temperatures and the melting of Arctic sea ice, as well as the threat of water shortages, human rights concerns, and international security challenges. Its planning and organiztion information (complete with out-of-date verb tense) is below for your reference.
Where:
Setting the Stage on Nov. 10th, and Evening at Egan keynote with Detlef Sprinz on the 11th— Egan Library
All Other Sessions — Egan Lecture Hall or as posted (check the signs as you arrive)
(see times below)
In Brief:
Thursday, Nov. 10th:
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM: Setting the Stage: This session features a panel discussion featuring four scientists to review the current state of the science on climate change and the contrarian view: Brendan Kelly, Terry Chapin, Patrick Michaels and Syun-Ichi Akasofu. The panel will be moderated by University of Alaska Southeast Provost Richard Caulfield.
Friday, Nov. 11th:
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM: 'Climate change and Social and Economic Justice' - This session will explore the ramifications of climate change on societies and societal structures with Jennifer Krencicki Barcelos and Jennifer Marlow of the Three Degrees Project. This session will be moderated by Linda Kruger of the U.S. Forest Service PNW Station.
5:00 PM - 6:45 PM: Climate change science poster session - Come review projects and studies relating to climate change study and research, presented by individual researchers. This is a chance to see what Alaskan scientists are finding and thiking about.
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM: Evening at Egan: Detlef Sprinz will deliver 'Is Long-Term Climate Policy Feasible?', the Forum's Keynote Address. He will be introduced by Chancellor John Pugh.
Saturday, Nov. 12th:
9:00 AM - 11:30AM: 'Climate Change and National Security' with Leo Goff. This session will explore how climate change, whether sudden or long-term on-set can trigger societal instability in regions of the world, and how prepared we are to respond. This session and a Reaction Panel will be moderated by Admiral Thomas Ostebo.
1:00 PM - 4:30PM: 'Bringing it Home - the Arctic' - This two-part session will explore the ramifications of a remote and desolate area of the earth that is becoming accessible by sea for weeks and months at a time. The panel includes Lawson Brigham, Larry Hartig, Alice Rogoff and Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell.
Details:
Thursday, Nov. 10th | 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM | UAS Egan Library:
Session I: Setting the Stage - a discussion on the current state of the science on climate change and the contrary view on both cause and consequence, with Brendan Kelly, Terry Chapin, Patrick Michaels and Syun-Ichi Akasofu, moderated by Richard Caulfield. Hear multiple views, discuss concerns, and ask questions of our expert panel.
Dr. Brendan P. Kelly is Deputy Director of the Arctic Research Division of the National Science
Foundation. He has studied sea ice ecosystems—with an emphasis on ice-associated marine mammals—for the past 35 years. He served as a Research Scientist with NOA's Polar Ecosystems Program and as a Professor of Marine Biology, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Vice Provost for Research at the University of Alaska. Dr. Kelly has degrees in Biology from the University of California Santa Cruz (B.A.), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (M.S.), and Purdue University (Ph.D.).
Gravely concerned by threats to the Arctic ecosystem and the people who depend on it, Brendan has focused increasingly on climate change and its impact on the northern ecosystems. He has served on numerous local, state, national, and international committees including: Interagency Arctic Research Committee, Washington DC (Executive Director), Arctic Council’s Ecosystem-Based Management Expert’s Group (U.S. Delegate), Mayor’s Scientific Panel on Climate Change in the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska (Chair) University of Alaska Research Advisory Council Alaska Native Harbor Seal Commission and the Alaska Sea Otter Commission (Science adviser), Alaska Scientific Review Group for marine mammal stocks (Chair), Advisory Committee: Shelf Basin Interactions Project, U. S. Climate Change Science Program: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land and Water Resources, American – Norwegian Arctic Research Opportunities (Co-chair for Biology), Marine Mammal Steering Committee, U.S. - Russia Environmental Agreement.
Dr. F. Stuart "Terry" Chapin III has served the University of Alaska Fairbanks with distinction in teaching, research and public service from 1973 to 1989 and 1996 to 2011.
He has inspired students through his commitment to academic excellence; and has mentored numerous graduate students, many of whom now hold prominent academic positions throughout the world; and led the development of a successful interdisciplinary graduate education program that integrates all relevant disciplines to address sustainability in a systems framework; and whose collegial and supportive manner has inspired the highest quality research among his peers and students.
Dr. Chapin is one of the nation’s leading ecologists and is the only Alaskan to hold an appointment to the National Academy of Sciences; and whose scientific contributions and leadership have shaped our fundamental understanding of ecological structures and functions; and whose published work has had such impact that it has been cited by other scientists many thousands of times.
Throughout his career he has served in leadership roles on numerous international, national, regional and University panels, committees, editorial boards and working groups, thereby influencing the course of policy in conservation, wildlife, resource and ecosystem management to effect wise stewardship of our natural environment.
Dr. Patrick J. Michaels is a Senior Research Fellow for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University. He is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists and was program chair for the Committee on Applied Climatology of the American Meteorological Society. Michaels was also a research professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia for thirty years.
He is a contributing author and reviewer of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. His writing has been published in the major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in popular serials such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and Journal of Commerce. He was an author of the climate "paper of the year" awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004. He has appeared on most of the worldwide major media.
Michaels holds A.B. and S.M. degrees in biological sciences and plant ecology from the University of Chicago, and he received a Ph.D. in ecological climatology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1979.
Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu, International Arctic Research Center founding director and professor of physics, emeritus, was the director of the IARC of the University of Alaska Fairbanks from its establishment in 1998 until January of 2007. He originally came to UAF in 1958 as a graduate student to study the aurora under Sydney Chapman, receiving his doctorate in 1961. He has been a professor of geophysics since 1964. Dr. Akasofu has published more than 550 professional journal articles, authored and co-authored 10 books and has been the invited author of many encyclopedia articles. He has collaborated with numerous colleagues nationally and internationally, and has guided nine students to their Ph.D. degrees.
Dr. Akasofu's auroral work has earned national and international recognition. As Director of the Geophysical Institute (1986-1999), Dr. Akasofu concentrated his effort on establishing the institute as a key research center in the Arctic. He also played a critical role in the establishment of the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the modernization of the Poker Flat Research Range. Dr. Akasofu is one of the 700+ scientists listed in a report issued by the Republican minority of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works entitled 'More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims Scientists Continue to Debunk "Consensus"' in 2008 & 2009.
Friday, Nov. 11th | 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM | UAS Egan Lecture Hall:
Session II: 'Climate Change and Social and Economic Justice' with Jennifer Krencicki Barcelos and Jennifer Marlow of the Three Degrees Project, moderated by Linda Kruger.
Jennifer Krencicki Barcelos most recently served as a Gates Public Service Law Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law, where she focused on the intersection of climate change and human rights law. While in law school, Jeni co-organized the Three Degrees Conference on the Law of Climate Change and Human Rights in May 2009, and co-founded the Three Degrees Project at the University of Washington School of Law, of which she now shares the role of Executive Director. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she co-developed and taught Yale’s first graduate course on Environmental Security.
She helped design and coordinate the founding of the Progressive Ideas Network – a national alliance of multi-issue think tanks and advocacy organizations. Her more recent work includes advising Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, about legal and policy recommendations for states to use in implementing more just climate policies to low-income families. She has been volunteering her time with The Climate Project since 2006, assisting in the dissemination of Al Gore’s global educational campaign on climate change. She is also an editor of "Climate Change: A Reader" -an academic text forthcoming from Carolina Academic Press.
Jennifer Marlow graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 2010 and is a member of the Washington State Bar. While in law school, she co-organized the Three Degrees Conference on the Law of Climate Change and Human Rights, and co-founded the Three Degrees Project on climate justice, serving as an inaugural fellow to the project. She graduated from Middlebury College in 2002, where she studied environmental studies and literature with John Elder and Bill McKibben, co-edited the Otter Creek Journal on nature and the arts, and wrote book reviews for The Middlebury Campus. Prior to law school, she worked as a field biologist, newspaper reporter, editor at award-winning Orion magazine, communications associate for the Portland–based think tank Ecotrust, and columnist for Edible Portland. She also co-organized the Inaugural Next Generation Leadership Retreat Series for The Center for Whole Communities to provide leadership opportunities for emerging environmental and social justice leaders.
During law school, apart from conference organizing, she advised the Washington Environmental Council and Sightline Institute on legal barriers to developing fair climate policies for Washington state, interned for the Berman Environmental Law Clinic, and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable John C. Coughenour.
Same Day | 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM | UAS Egan Library:
Session III: Forum Keynote Address: 'Is Long-Term Climate Policy Feasible?' - Evening at Egan, with Detlef Sprinz, with introduction by Chancellor John Pugh.
Dr. Detlef F. Sprinz is a Senior Scientist with the Research Domain "Transdisciplinary Concepts & Methods" of PIK—Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, a Professor with the Department of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Potsdam, Germany, a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2006 and 2007, and is Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen.
He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. ("Diplom-Volkswirt") in Economics from the University of the Saarland in Germany. His areas of research and publications encompass long-term policy, inter/national institutions & the evaluation of their performance, European & international environmental policy, and mathematical modeling of political decisions.
He is the guest editor of the special issue of Global Environmental Politics on "Long-term Environmental Policy", co-editor of International Relations and Global Climate Change, and of Models, Numbers, and Cases: Methods for Studying International Relations, in addition to numerous journal articles. He has taught international relations, international and European environmental policy, and social science methodology in both the US and Germany, is a member of the European Academy; and serves on the advisory boards of national, European, and international projects and institutions.
Saturday, Nov. 12th | 9:00 AM - 11:30 PM | UAS Egan Lecture Hall:
Session IV: 'Climate Change and National Security' with Leo Goff, Program Manager for CNA, with Reaction Panel moderated by Admiral Thomas Ostebo, featuring Admirals Richard Knapp and Ray Riutta and Lois Schiffer.
Dr. Leo Goff is the Program Manager for CNA’s Military Advisory Board, an elite group of retired three- and four-star flag and general officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps that studies pressing issues of the day to assess their impact on America’s national security. Doctor Goff’s professional career began as a United States Naval Officer where he obtained the rank of Navy Captain.
During his 30 year naval career, he served on five submarines, two submarine tenders, and had several strategic assignments at the Pentagon. Dr Goff’s capstone Navy assignment was as a special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and as Director of the CNO’s Executive Panel, a federal committee providing peer advice to the CNO. He also served as a program analyst for the Secretary of the Navy; Deputy Executive Assistant to the CNO; Special Assistant to the Vice CNO; and a Fellow on the CNO’s Strategic Studies Group.
Doctor Goff holds a Ph.D. in organizational management with a concentration in leadership; a Master’s degree in Public Administration; and a Master’s Degree in Executive Business Administration. He was a fellow at Maxwell School for Strategic Studies at Syracuse; completed MIT’s Seminar XXI on foreign politics, international relations, and national interests; and completed Joint Military Professional Education through the National Defense University. He earned his commission at the United States Naval Academy, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Ocean Engineering.
Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo assumed the duties as the Commander, Seventeenth Coast Guard District in May 2011. He is responsible for all Coast Guard Operations throughout Alaska. As the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Alaska, he provides operationally ready maritime forces to both Coast Guard and Department of Defense Commanders for Coast Guard, joint, and interagency operations both domestically and internationally.
In his previous assignment, Rear Admiral Ostebo was the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Engineering and Logistics (CG-4). His other assignments include Executive Assistant to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Executive Assistant to the Chief of Coast Guard Operations, Commanding Officer of Air Stations Cape Cod and Traverse City, and Chief Aeronautical Engineering Officer at Air Station Clearwater, Florida and Air Station Sitka, Alaska.
A native of Kings Park, New York, Admiral Ostebo graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1981 with a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science. In 1993, Admiral Ostebo earned a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Business. He has completed a Senior Fellowship in National Security at Harvard University in 2002 and a Senior Fellowship at the Naval War College in 2005. Additionally, he has earned a Program Manager Level III Certification in Acquisitions and a Program Manager Level I Certification in Logistics. Admiral Ostebo was promoted to flag rank in July 2008.
Rear Admiral Richard J. Knapp is a Juneau resident active in a variety of civic affairs, including service as chairman of the Juneau Docks and Harbors Board, commissioner on the State Public Officers Compensation Commission, and president of Citizens Pro Road. Knapp also served as senior vice president for Petro Marine and as Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities under Governor Bill Sheffield.
Knapp served in the United States Coast Guard for most of his professional life, retiring at the rank of Rear Admiral and commander of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District. He served on six ships, commanding four of them. During his stints at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. he served as Chief of the Ocean Operations Division, Deputy Chief of the Office of Personnel and, immediately before his appointment as 17th District commander, Comptroller of the Coast Guard.
Vice Admiral Ray Riutta has held the position of Executive Director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) since August 2002. Since then, he has guided the organization through pivotal changes, including the implementation of the Sustainability Platform to showcase Alaska's commitment to responsibly-managed fisheries.
Prior to joining ASMI, Riutta served in the United States Coast Guard, retiring at the rank of Vice Admiral. During his career, he served on six ships, commanding four of them, with over 12 years of sea service in the Bering Sea, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Great Lakes and the Caribbean Sea. For three years he was assigned to the US Embassy in London, England. While assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Riutta was Deputy Chief of the Office of Law Enforcement and Defense Operations and later, Chief of Operations. During his tenure as District Commander for Alaska, Ray served as a member of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. He worked closely with the Pacific Region Coast Guards (China, Japan, Korea, Canada and Russia) while in command of all U.S. Coast Guard forces in the Pacific, a post he held on September 11, 2001.
Riutta is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a 1990 graduate of the National War College. He is married to Barbara Starr Kramer. They have two sons, Ian and Aaron.
Lois Schiffer is General Counsel at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She has extensive experience in environmental law through her work in federal jobs, in private practice, and for non-profit organizations. From 1993-2001, she served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division with responsibility for pollution, natural resources, wildlife, Indian, and condemnation litigation. She has argued cases before a number of Courts of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court and has, for 25 years, been an adjunct professor of environmental law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Ms. Schiffer has authored many articles on environmental law topics. She is the recipient of the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award, and of the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service at the Department of Justice.
She currently serves as a board member of the International Senior Lawyers Project, and has previously served on the boards of a number of other non-profit organizations including the District of Columbia Bar and American Rivers. Ms. Schiffer received her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College and her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Same Day | 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM | UAS Egan Lecture Hall:
Session V: 'Bringing it Home – The Arctic' Part I: 'The New Maritime Arctic' with Lawson Brigham.
Dr. Lawson Brigham is Distinguished Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North in Anchorage. During 2005-2009 he was chair of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and Vice Chair of the Council’s working group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment. Dr. Brigham was a career U.S. Coast Guard officer (1970-95) and served at sea in command of four Coast Guard ships including the polar icebreaker Polar Sea in Arctic and Antarctic waters; he also served as Chief of Coast Guard Strategic Planning in Washington, DC. Captain Brigham has participated in more than 15 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, and during July and August 1994 Polar Sea, under his command, crossed the central Arctic Ocean for science in company with the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent. Dr. Brigham has been a research fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a faculty member of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and Deputy Director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and his research interests have focused on the Russian maritime Arctic, Arctic futures, marine transportation, and polar geopolitics.
Same Day | 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM | UAS Egan Lecture Hall:
Session V: 'Bringing it Home – The Arctic' Part II: 'Issues facing the Alaskan Arctic' -a panel discussion with Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell, Larry Hartig, Alice Rogoff and Lawson Brigham.
Mead Treadwell was elected as Alaska’s lieutenant governor in November 2010. A graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School, Treadwell brings a record of private and public sector success to his job as lieutenant governor. Treadwell is recognized as one of the world’s Arctic policy experts. He was appointed to the United States Arctic Research Commission in 2001 and designated by the President as the commission’s chair in 2006. Under his leadership, a new United States Arctic policy was developed and adopted by President Bush and is now being implemented by the Obama administration. Other public sector contributions include serving as the city of Cordova’s director of oil spill response during the Exxon Valdez oil spill crisis; working to launch the Prince William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute, the Prince William Sound Science Center and the Rural Community Assistance Corporation; and serving as Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Larry Hartig an attorney with more than 20 years experience in environmental law, regulations, permits and land use issues. Prior to his appointment in 2007 by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, he was in private practice as an attorney with the Anchorage law firm of Hartig Rhodes Hoge & Lekisch, PC. Joining the firm in 1983, Mr. Hartig worked primarily on environmental, natural resource, and commercial matters. His practice included assisting clients in obtaining environmental and other permits for natural resource development projects, as well as projects involving environmental compliance and cleanup of contaminated properties. Clients included government, private developers, industry and Native Corporations, among others. He also worked as a landman in the Land/Legal Department of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company between 1972 and 1976.
Alice Rogoff Alice Rogoff is Publisher and owner of Alaska Dispatch Publishing, which produces the leading journalism site AlaskaDispatch.com.
In 2011, Rogoff hosted The Arctic Imperative Summit, the first-ever international policy gathering in Alaska focused on the issues and opportunities presented by the melting sea ice. More than 250 decision-makers from the policy and business communities contributed to a productive series of discussions on the Arctic. In 2002, she co–founded and became Chairman of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, which she continues to lead as a long-term Board Member. In 2008, Rogoff also founded Alaska House, a non-profit “virtual embassy” to promote understanding of the economic issues and opportunities facing the State, including the long-term development of the U.S. Arctic.
Beginning in 1985, Rogoff was the Chief Financial Officer of U.S News and World Report, a position she held for twelve years. Prior to that she was Managing Director of G. William Miller and Co., a Washington D.C investment management firm. She also worked at The Washington Post Company as an Assistant to publisher Donald Graham. Rogoff was the creator of the “National Weekly Edition” of The Washington Post. From 1978-80, Rogoff served in the Administration of President Jimmy Carter as Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
She has served on numerous boards, including the Carter Center in Atlanta; The National Symphony Orchestra; The Potomac School; The National Child Research Center; and the Center for Excellence in Government. She is a member of the Council of the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Geographic Society’s Council of Advisors. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Rogoff is married to David M. Rubenstein.