Fed Event: ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE: AN URGENT DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDA

Led by ROSINA M. BIERBAUM, PH.D., Co-Chair, World Development Report 2010, The World Bank, Dean, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, the talk will explore how to better help people cope with new or worsened risks drawing on the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change (www.worldbank.org/wdr2010) and lessons learned from the U.S. National Assessments.

Monday, March 1, 2010
12:15 – 1:30 p.m.
Room 1207 Van Munching Hall

Light fare will be provided. The event is sponsored by the Climate Adaptation Project, University of Maryland.

Today's enormous development challenges are complicated by the reality of climate change ‐ the two are inextricably linked and together demand immediate attention. Estimates are that developing countries would bear some 75‐80% of the costs of anticipated damage caused by the changing climate. But there will also be significant impacts in wealthy countries as well. All countries will need to take action to reduce socio‐economic and ecological vulnerability as climate changes. Yet, research efforts to tackle this problem are nascent and a compendium of ‘best practices’ does not exist.

Rosina Bierbaum is the co‐director of the World Development Report 2010 on climate change. Since 2001, she has been the Dean and Professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) at the University of Michigan. Previously, Dr. Bierbaum served for two decades in environmental science policy leadership positions in both the legislative and executive branches of government, culminating as director of the Environment Division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a Senate‐confirmed position. She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She currently serves on the National Research Council’s Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; as a trustee of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research; on the board of the Federation of American Scientists; and on the Science Advisory Council for the MacArthur Foundation, among others. Dr. Bierbaum received her B.S. in Biology and B.A. in English from Boston College, and earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.