PDC Updates | Aug 5, 2008
Nobel Laureate Dr. Nguyen Huu Ninh
Nobel Laureate Dr. Nguyen Huu Ninh, whose work with the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change earned him a share in the Nobel Peace Prize famously awarded to former Vice President Al Gore, is among the most respected analysts of climate issues. He will be among the distinguished guests at PDC’s Expert Working Group Meeting on Climate Change and Variability: Shifting Risks along with other Nobelists, including Dr. Patricia Romero-Lankao (pictured below). Dr. Ninh is seen here speaking to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in April 2008. (Image: IISD.)

Pacific Disaster Center and East-West Center will welcome a list of distinguished guests to Hawaii on August 14 and 15 for an “Expert Working Group Meeting on Climate Change and Variability: Shifting Risks.”

Participants in the Expert Working Group will include Nobel Laureate Dr. Nguyen Huu Ninh from Vietnam, who will moderate a panel on Changing Impacts of Climate Change and Variabilities: Trends and Monitoring. Nobel Laureate Dr. Patricia Romero-Lankao of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, will join Dr. Ninh and others in the tone-setting first session of the meeting. The Nobel Prizes awarded to Dr. Ninh and Dr. Romero-Lankao, as well as the one presented to the Manila Observatory—represented at the conference by Mrs. Antonia Yulo Loyzaga—are all in recognition of important contributions to the work of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Nobel Laureate Dr. Patricia Romero-Lankao
Nobel Laureate Dr. Patricia Romero-Lankao of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. (Image: University Center for Atmospheric Research)
“This is a very unique opportunity, as we intend to focus not only on the debates regarding the subject, but also on the impacts of Climate Change and Variability on shifting disaster risks, associated gaps in emerging disaster management issues, and solutions to such gaps,” said Ray Shirkhodai, Executive Director of PDC. He continued, “Our focus will be on the use of applied sciences to identify emerging shifts and devise possible practical means to prepare for them.”

The remaining invited guests in the Expert Working Group are also very significant contributors to the worldwide discussion on climate change. Among the speakers are such dignitaries as International Ocean Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Cherdsak Virapat; Perot Systems Government Services–Coastal Natural Hazards Specialist Dr. John J. Marra from NOAA; and Dr. Bryan Boruff, lecturer in the School of Earth and Geographic Sciences at the University of Western Australia, who was hosted by Pacific Disaster Center when he was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow with the National Academies Associateship Program.

The experts will discuss, in relation to climate change and variability, such topics as urbanization and population, environment and health, social risk impact assessment, and water security.

The exact outcomes and future effects of the Expert Working Group are impossible to gauge in advance, but PDC’s Chief Scientist, Stan Goosby, said, “This meeting will have profound effects on the global conversation about climate change and its impacts, especially in the applied science and disaster management arenas. Such a group of eminent scientists and thinkers will no doubt inspire one another, and they will come to new questions while working on needed answers to the current ones.”

For more information, consider these resources:

  • Pacific Disaster Center’s public website where you can view or link to various climate related resources, including weather & hazard messages, forecasts, satellite imagery and Hawaii’s astronomical tides.
  • East-West Center’s website where news and events of potential interest are posted regularly.
  • The Fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands, a conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, where Dr. Ninh spoke.
  • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization awarded the Nobel Prize along with Vice President Al Gore, allows readers to download full texts of many publications from its website.
  • The website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has numerous useful links and references.
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