The Yale F&ES Project on Climate Change is pleased to offer this website as a virtual meeting place where actors from different sectors of society can engage in open dialogue and find solutions for bridging the gap between climate science and action. We hope that this site enables stronger collaboration among individuals and institutions in order to begin implementation of the recommendations for action that came out of our 2005 Conference, and to spotlight or augment other actions already underway.
Since the Conference, there has been an increase in media coverage of climate change (e.g. the April 3 Time Magazine, the 60 Minutes segments on the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and rewriting the science, increased New York Times coverage and the HBO documentary Too Hot Not to Handle airing this month).
Momentum for translating the documented increase in public concern about the issue into action is growing. But attention has spiked before, and there remains a real risk that climate change will be treated as the news story of the week if we do not take steps to sustain and build civic awareness and engagement on the issue. What needs to be done to service the demand for information on climate change science, as well as on adaptation and mitigation efforts? These are the kinds of questions that we are hoping to answer in our dialogues on this site. Additional questions are listed on each domain page as a starting point for discussion.
I encourage you to become involved in one or more of the Action Items. Of the 39 action i
I look forward to reading your comments.
5 comments
April 20th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Rayna Caldwell
In response to Dean Speth’s comments, I think that we need a major education and outreach campaign so that all segments of society understand the risks of a disrupted climate. We need to find ways of making the science of climate change as well as the crisis we face more comprehensible to journalists, politicians at all levels of government and to society at large. As Thomas Jefferson said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
April 20th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Brandi
This is an exciting but contentious time with respect to the role that energy plays in our society and others so having an appropriate venue to share and learn about the cutting edge issues as they pertain to climate change is essential. As the media continues to introduce the issue of climate change to the general public, it is imperative that tangible strategies, which can be incorporated on every level, are clearly disseminated as not to lose the momentum of this effort. To be equipped with the information and not the tools to act will inevitably result in learned helplessness of the general population who can be just as instrumental on an individual level in adapting their personal practices to complement the needs of our changing environment.
April 20th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Caley Johnson
I am also very concerned that the American public will not have the attention span to see this through. This concern stems from the movement to save rainforests in the early 1990s. Rainforests captivated the nation, motivated us to do great things, then we forgot about them. Most focus was on the Amazon, whose rate of deforestation is greater now than it was in the days of its media limelight.
Lessons also need to be learned from the movement that is saving the ozone layer. Popular interest for this issue peaked and disappeared, but governments siezed the day, made binding committments to reduce ozone depleting substances, and the ozone is now on its way to recovery.
To over-simplify the solution, governments need to make long-term committments to the long term problem of climate change. We can’t expect a sustained level of enthusiasm for climate protection into the future, but we can expect a vigilant population that is ready to call a politician out when he breaks a climate-protection pact. Hopefully America’s interest will remain piqued for long enough to bring the federal government to the point of making such a committment.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Earl J. Prignitz
We can all start where we are in our own homes. Home energy accounts for a large percentage of our global warming pollution. And we can all help conserve by checking for air leaks and adequate insulation, and especially by using energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances and turning off electronics when not in use. Besides the value of the energy efficient light bulbs, by changing all the light bulbs in your home to energy-efficient bulbs would save up to $275 per year.
Earl J. Prignitz
June 23rd, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Stanley Fields
“The implications of global climate change transcend literally everything that usually divides us. Race, ethnicity, national boundaries, political affiliations – all pale when considering the need for the entire planet to join together to preserve our one and only life support system. I founded Climate Future Group to spark what I hope will be a worldwide revolution in the search for solutions to global climate change. I believe that when people are given accurate, scientific, unbiased information, they will respond with the sense of urgency that this challenge poses for every form of life on Earth, including the entire human species.”
Stanley W. Fields
Thanks to a generous seed grant from the Robert G. Hemingway Foundation, the nonprofit Climate Future Group has been able to create and launch the climatefuture.org website and produce the significant videos you find there. As well, a full-scale documentary is nearing the end of production, and initial advisory board and board of directors have been named. The board is led by Dr. Robert Corell, Ph.D., chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - an international group of climate researchers and global warming experts.
An aggressive campaign to raise $5.5 million is underway to fund the development of Phase II of the web portal. This phase will hire staff and acquire office space for the Climate Future Group - including the staff of Climate News Room with its director, reporters, editors, D.C. bureau chief and correspondent, as well as web technicians.
This funding will also purchase the newsgathering equipment and pathways for new broadcasting via internet TV; establish a news bureau in Washington, D.C.; purchase news feed subscriptions; create a global network of citizen videographers and correspondents; and begin acquiring the Climate News Room video archives, to name a few planned activities. The single-issue focus of Climate News Room will provide essential resources on climate change and global warming to journalists, educators, students, lawmakers, and the public at large.
Our mission is to continue to produce accurate, scientific, unbiased and compelling reports in video, text and graphics, as well as provide live interviews and coverage of global events — delivering the latest news and information about climate change, always in a format that will help to make sense of this complex topic.