Extreme Weather and the Risk from Climate Change: Can We Anticipate, Can We Adapt?

Published on Apr 8, 2014

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report by its Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Working Group in March, 2014, as part of its Fifth Assessment Report. Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer, one of the lead authors of the report, joins the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org) at The New School for Social Research (http://www.newschool.edu/nssr) to discuss New York City's climate plan as an example of both the obstacles and possibilities of long-term planning for climate change.

Extreme Weather and the Risk from Climate Change: Can We Anticipate, Can We Adapt?

The patterns and probability of extreme weather - and its accompanying risks to society and eco-systems are being altered by climate change due to the buildup of the greenhouse gases. While our ability to project such changes is improving, it remains inadequate at the local level, where most resilience and adaptation planning occurs. Even more troubling, needed action will likely be deferred by the economic and political obstacles that stand in the way of long-term resilience planning.

This event is in coordination with the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program (http://www.newschool.edu/public-engag...) at the Milano School (http://www.newschool.edu/public-engag...).

Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. He is director of the program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) at the Woodrow Wilson School and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program, Princeton Environmental Institute, and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Oppenheimer serves as a Coordinating Lead Author on the second Working Group report. The first report, "The Physical Science Basis," released in September 2013 by the first Working Group, was the subject of a SCEPA panel held in November 2013 on the Local and Global Impacts of of Climate Change.

SCEPA's Economics of Climate Change Project (http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org...), led by New School Professor of Economics Willi Semmler, is generously supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Wolff Conference Room, Albert and Vera List Academic Center
Monday, April 7, 2014 at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm