Latest Climate Change Research Results

Greetings from the Australian National University, where I am talking part in a Climate Research Expo. The university's researchers are discussing climate-related research. I have been invited along to talk about the ICT Sustainability course I run at ANU. Abstracts of the talks are available.

The first speaker was Professor Tony McMichael, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH). He discussed the human health effects of climate change, as well as increased deaths due to heat stress, there is expected to be tropical deceases spreading to more of Australia and increased mental illness amongst farmers due to more difficult conditions.

The next speaker was Dr Michael Roderick, Fellow, Joint between Research School of Earth Sciences and Research School of Biology. He talked about the work of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate System Science. Climate change is a "big science" issue, as a result considerable effort has to go into coordinating work between large numbers of researchers. In this case the centre will be doing the equivalent to 30 normal research projects.

Like the "Earthquake of the Week" symposium I attended at ANU in March, this was a little like being in a disaster movie. Expert after expert details in the dry language of science the details of a disaster. The question then is what can and will anyone do about this.

Here is the program:

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
CLIMATE CHANGE EXPO 2011
Monday: 22 August 2011

8:45 – 9:00 WELCOME AND OVERVIEW: Will Steffen
9:00 – 10:00 SCIENCE
Chair: Michael Roderick
Climate change and the prospects for Australia's health Tony McMichael
Introducing the new ARC Centre of Excellence
Michael Roderick
The Ocean and Climate: Why do we need to understand the ocean to understand climate change?
Chris Chapman
Land surface processes
Fubao Sun
Terrestrial carbon cycle
Heather Keith

10:00 –11:00 ENERGY
Chair: Ken Baldwin
New Endex technologies for decarbonising fuels and flue
gases: Rowena Ball
Teaching Energy Efficiency with iPads and the Web: Tom Worthington
Trends in Info-Comm Technology (ICT) Sustainability in a Carbon-Constrained World: Idris F. Sulaiman
Energy performance simulation of Australian office buildings and sources of inaccuracy with these simulations: Annie Egan
Connecting solar PV systems to the US national electrical grid: Arnold Mckinley

11:00 – 11:30 Morning Tea

11:30 – 12:30 ADAPTATION
Chair: Barbara Norman
Climate change governance under politics as usual and the deliberative alternative: A tale of two publics
Simon Niemeyer
China and the Third Pole: Katherine Morton
Adaptation: Hot and cold weather - risk assessment and
projection: Keith Dear
Climate change, conflict and health: Devin Bowles
Future Fire Scenarios and Economic Implications: Project Researchers: Eddy Collett

12:30 – 13:15 Light Lunch (provided)

13:15 – 13:45 ECONOMICS
Chair: Howard Bamsey
Meta-Analysis of the Costs of Abating Carbon Emissions
David Stern
Valuing climate change damage in economic measures of
global sustainability
Paul J. Burke
The Economics of Climate Change Policies in China
Shenghao Feng

13:45 – 14:15 LAW
Chair: Andrew Macintosh
Law and Policy
Karen Hussey
Impact of ‘Law and Policy’ on Bushfire Management
Michael Eburn
“States in Decision: The US and the EU in the international climate negotiations”
Christian Downie

14:15 – 14:30 Break

14:30 – 15:00 ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Chair: Kyla Tienhaara
Asia and the Pacific: Climate change risk assessment in
Cambodia
Dave Harley
Environmental implications of land use policies in a
decentralised Indonesia
Fitrian Ardiansyah
Sustainability of water resources in rural Bangladesh
Md Zillur Rahman

15:00 – 15:30
HUMAN DIMENSIONS
Chair: Barry Newell
Desert Channels: working on local and global scales
together
Libby Robin
Urbanism, Climate Adaptation and Health Cluster
Katrina Proust
The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society: An overview
John Dryzek

15:30 – 15:45 Closing remarks
Will Steffen
Posters Luke Menzies
Centre for Public Awareness of Science
Maria Taylor
Centre for Public Awareness of Science