What’s up at CGRER?
Do existing institutions have the ability to protect the environment and respond to the challenges of climate change in order to build a sustainable world? How can Iowa protect both its environment and its economy? These are questions to be addressed in an upcoming program that CGRER is helping to plan, titled Taking On the Challenge of Climate Change. The four-part program, being sponsored by the Iowa Division, United Nations Association-USA, is intended to explore the risks, challenges, and solutions springing from climate change-based problems. Program objectives focus on educating the Iowa public and including Iowa and its residents in the global dialogue on climate change. The program is attempting to move away from polarized debate about climate change issues by including the concerns and ideas of all sectors of society, including individual residents as well as industrialists, educators, and other professionals, and by showcasing economic opportunities that are associated with energy efficiency.
The program will consist of three public educational meetings to be held in 1999 followed by a summary session, a Des Moines-based public hearing scheduled for November 6, 1999. CGRER is planning and hosting one of the three educational meetings -- Science and Climate Change -- which will be held on March 5, 1999, in Iowa City. Science and Climate Change is now being planned by George Malanson (UI, Geography Dept.). Sessions of the day-long symposium will cover paleoenvironmental information; models and monitoring; impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources, and vegetation; and policy issues. Findings in each area will be interpreted for the general public. Other educational meetings, sponsored by other institutions, are Model UN Summit on Climate Change for Iowa Youth and The Technology of Energy Alternatives.
The effects of CGRER members’ research and teaching continue to be felt close to home and in distant locations. In one interesting turn, for example, CGRER’s most distant member Konstantine Georgakakos (Hydrologic Research Center and Scripps Institution of Oceanography) has recently published a paper that shows a savings of about $4.5 million in maximum daily flood damage if a full-forecast Global Climate Model were to be used by Saylorville Reservoir managers. (PUT AS FOOTNOTE: Georgakakos, KP, et al; August 1998; Assessment of Benefits of Climate Forecasts for Reservoir Management in the GCIP Region, GEWEX News 8(3), 5-7)
At the same time, Gene Takle (Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, ISU) is exporting his Global Change course to Latin America. The computerization of this class was reported in IoWatch three years ago. At that time, Gene was placing his classroom materials on the ozone hole, tropical deforestation, change-related population problems, and like topics onto the Internet so that students could discuss the issues electronically and perform interactive lab exercises. Gene’s class materials have proven to be extremely attractive to Internet users around the globe: they have now been accessed by persons from over 100 nations, with accesses averaging over 2,000 per day and ranging up to 9,000 per day. (Take a look yourself -- http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gcp/gcp.html .)
Because of the apparent need and interest for such class materials, Gene was approached by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research to begin translation of the class into Spanish and Portuguese. This effort not only will offer (via computer) much-needed class materials to receptive teachers throughout the Americas; it also will allow Iowa’s students to dialogue electronically with students in other countries, and will promote international dialogues about global change among students in many other countries, thus sensitizing them to the complex cultural issues associated with global change problems.
CGRER welcomes the following newly-elected members to its Executive Committee for three-year terms: Paul Greenough (UI, History), Steve Hendrix (UI, Biological Sciences), and Dave McGinnis (UI, Geography). Luis Gonzalez was reelected for a second term. Many thanks to outgoing member Diana Horton for her years of Executive Committee service.
CGRER's attempts to rebalance the carbon cycle are not going unnoticed. In September 1998, CGRER was notified that it had received a 1998 Iowa Energy Leadership Award from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This award was made for CGRER's leadership, innovation, and resulting "outstanding contribution to the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Iowa." The November 4 award ceremony in Des Moines will include a slide presentation on CGRER's energy-related research.