Solar Austin Happy Hour – Bruce Melton on Climate Change

From Solar Austin –

Join us for a visually stimulating discussion of the challenge of our age –  climate change. The topics that may be covered are enumerated below and with some audience input a select few will be explored.

Bruce Melton is a science author and filmmaker, outreach specialist, professional engineer with primary research in stormwater treatment, and CEO of the Climate Change Now Initiative (nonprofit 501c3). Founded in 2005, the Initiative has created over 400 reviews of academic climate science literature, 50 popular press articles, two experimental documentaries (rockumentaries), a book, and 36 songs. ClimateDiscovery.org

Bruce holds a unique perspective built on personal observations collected from around North America and Greenland, dedicated review of scientific publication, and a clear understanding of the profound risks with which we are encumbering ourselves. Yet he combines this understanding with a deep optimism regarding what can be done to confront such risk.

The Climate Change Now Initiative, the oldest independent climate science education organization in the world, presents scientific and policy interpretation of the most critical new scientific publishing and global developments of 2016. The program’s backdrop is the Initiative’s field work in reporting major climate impacts happening now across North America and Greenland. What Climate Change Now considers critical to the discussion includes:

• Ecoregime change( forest die-off) in high latitude forests of Western North America
• Apparent drought where an increased warm season can create drought conditions even with above normal precipitation
• Increasing extreme weather
• Abrupt sea level rise and beach disintegration ongoing on barrier island beaches in Texas
• Dramatic increase in Greenland ice discharge
• Ongoing shutdown of the Gulf Stream
• Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet:
  New modeling of timelines and dramatically increased rate of collapse
  Feedback from warming induced increase in sea ice
  Prevention of complete collapse initiation through ocean heat content reduction
• The history of current climate reform strategies and their efficacy considering successful implementation
• Definition of Dangerous Climate Change and new developments reducing the dangerous limit
• Global Warming Psychology: a description of the disconnection between climate science, the public, policy makers, and environmental advocates,  and the role of global warming psychology in increasing climate science awareness
• The psychology of a healthy climate, what this is and how we can achieve it
• The need for strong negative emissions
• Well-developed industrial scale atmospheric CO2 capture technology, the controversy over economic feasibility and a “license to pollute” given the opportunity to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere
• The demise of fossil fuels and the ongoing disconnection of CO2 emissions from future scenario projections, the role of fracking and dramatically reduced costs of alternative energy, and implications of future cost reductions of solar PV and fugitive emissions from methane.

State Parking Garages can be found next to, behind and across from Scholz Garten. San Jacinto Blvd., 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and Trinity have parking garage entrances.

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