Simon Donner's Elevator Pitch on Climate Change

Posted on May 22, 2015 by bradleydibble

Simon Donner is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also currently an associate in UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability as well as the Biodiversity Research Centre. On top of that, he is also an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and a Google Science Communication Fellow.

Simon leads a broad program of teaching and research that investigates how climate variability and climate change influence society and ecosystems such as coral reefs. His research group examines a wide range of problems including climate change and its effects on coral bleaching, nutrient pollution in rivers, and adaptation requirements in the Pacific Islands, as well as some of the obstacles to public education about the issue.

Here is his his unique take on the Elevator Pitch for climate change.

Mauri Pelto's Elevator Pitch on Climate Change

Posted on April 17, 2015 by bradleydibble

Mauri S. Pelto is a professor of environmental science at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, as well as the director of the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project. He has been studying glaciers in the state of Washington since 1984. His research team has documented that all of these glaciers are retreating because of higher temperatures and a decrease in the amount of snowfall, both attributable to global warming. Of the 756 glaciers identified in the North Cascades by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1971, 53 of them had completely disappeared by 2006, with nine more likely to go soon.

Here’s Mauri’s “Elevator Pitch” explaining global warming in one minute.

Naomi Oreskes's Elevator Pitch on Climate Change

Posted on April 6, 2015 by bradleydibble

Naomi Oreskes along with Erik M. Conway wrote an amazing book called “Merchants of Doubt.” It’s a thorough analysis of how various corporations have used lobbyists over the years to prevent the truth from interfering with their own goals, usually profits. Examples include efforts at preventing people from understanding that cigarettes cause cancer, that acid rain came from pollution caused by manufacturing and of course that carbon dioxide emissions are causing global warming and climate change. A new documentary has followed on the success of the book and I’d encourage you to see it when you get a chance.

Here’s Naomi’s Elevator Pitch on climate change. An excellent bread-and-butter description on the basic science behind it all.

Richard Alley's Elevator Pitch

Posted on March 27, 2015 by bradleydibble

Richard Alley is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University who has authored more than 170 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth’s cryosphere and global climate change. He has been recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a “highly cited researcher,” and some consider him the funniest climate scientist on the planet. Here’s his brief Elevator Pitch about climate change, pointing out that the same science explaining global warming is what is used in heat-seeking missiles. Enjoy.

Dr. Ken Caldeira's Elevator Pitch

Posted on February 27, 2015 by bradleydibble

Here’s another video in the “Elevator Pitch” series where climate scientists desiccate what they would say about global warming and climate change in a conversation during an elevator ride. This one is with Dr. Kenneth Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist who works at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology. His research is primarily in ocean acidification, climate effects of trees, intentional climate modification, and interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system.

See what you think about his take on the morality of not acting now to change our ways.