UW News

November 1, 2001

MEDIA ADVISORY: Marrakech conference prompts expert briefing on NW climate change

News and Information

* WHAT: Expert briefing for reporters on the impacts of climate change on the Pacific Northwest
* WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 8, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
* WHERE: Faculty Club, University of Washington, Seattle
* WHO: Climate researchers from the University of Washington and experts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health

DETAILS: Global climate change is in the headlines as nations involved in the Kyoto climate treaty finish their negotiating session in Marrakech, Morocco. Top experts who did the definitive study of climate change in the Pacific Northwest explain why the results of the Marrakech conference matter here, as well as results of their latest research. They will discuss how climate change might affect regional salmon runs, urban water supply, forests, precipitation, flooding and droughts, hydropower and human health. The panel will look at what the City of Seattle and others are doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and UW Marine Affairs Professor Ed Miles will give a keynote address “From Rio to Marrakech: The Past, Present, and Future of International Climate Change Negotiations.”

Sponsors include the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the UW (UW and NOAA); the UW School of Marine Affairs and Climate Impacts Group; the Environmental Health Center/National Safety Council; and the Puget Sound Science Writers’ Association. (NOTE: Partial funding for the event comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under a cooperative agreement with the Environmental Health Center.)

The briefing is open to all journalists. Advance registration is requested (lunch will be provided). Contact Kristin Marstiller at (202) 974-2469 or marstilk@nsc.org. For an agenda, see http://jisao.washington.edu/PNWimpacts/CIGNews.htm.

DIRECTIONS: The UW Faculty Club is across the street from the Husky Union Building (see http://www.washington.edu/home/maps/?55,54,971,534 for an online map, and click on the red circle). To reach campus from Interstate 5, exit at Northeast 45th Street and travel east on 45th Street past 15th Avenue Northeast. Turn right at 17th Avenue Northeast and enter the UW campus. At the gatehouse, tell the attendant you are a reporter attending the climate change briefing and you will be directed to the closest available parking to the Faculty Club.


Panelists


Edward Sarachik
Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the UW and UW atmospheric sciences professor
Member of the National Academy of Sciences panel that recently advised President Bush on climate change

Philip Mote
Climate Impacts Group at the UW
Atmospheric scientist, lead author of 1999 report on the impacts of climate variability and change on the Pacific Northwest

Richard Palmer
UW professor of civil and environmental engineering
Hydrologist, expert in urban water supply planning; is advising Seattle and Portland on climate change issues

Nathan Mantua
Climate Impacts Group and UW research scientist
Atmospheric scientist, lead author of the original 1997 paper linking Pacific decadal variability to salmon abundance

David Peterson
UW professor of forest resources
Forest ecologist, authority on the connection between climate conditions and forest growth

Edward Miles
Climate Impacts Group and UW professor of marine affairs
Expert in international policy and climate impacts; founder and director of Climate Impacts Group

Richard Hoskins
Washington State Department of Health
Expert on climate change and human health. Washington state public health geographer and a senior epidemiologist with the State Department of Health; also on the clinical faculty in the UW Department of Epidemiology

Anthony Socci
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Staff member in the Climate Protection Partnerships Division in EPA’s Air Office. Formerly with the U.S. Global Change Research Program, where he organized seminars on science issues related to climate change for congressional members and staff

K.C. Golden
City of Seattle
Adviser to the mayor on energy and climate change issues