Global Hot Spots

Global Hot Spots: “An Update from Paris: On the Road to a Clean Energy Society”

March 18 - 1:30PM - 2:30PM

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Fluno Center — Auditorium, 601 University Ave., Madison, WI 53715

Speaker: Jonathan Patz, John P. Holton Chair in Health and the Environment, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences

About the talk: In early December, a record number of heads of state convened in Paris for the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change to negotiate commitments on greenhouse gas reductions needed to address the challenge. Also unprecedented was the level of agreement on the serious threat of climate change and the imperative need to rapidly reduce fossil fuel emissions. But, are the trade-offs fully understood? Are the costs and benefits from a low-carbon economy fully accounted for in a way that can inform the policy process? The global climate crisis poses many risks to human health: from heat waves, famines, and weather-sensitive infectious diseases, to extreme storms, sea-level rise, and infrastructure collapse. Yet, climate change mitigation policies could potentially have enormous public health benefits stemming from improved air quality and active transport that promotes physical fitness. These represent the “silver lining” or co-benefits of action to confront today’s global climate crisis. In short, climate change presents large human health risks, while climate-change actions offer health benefits – possibly the greatest health opportunities in more than a century.

About the speaker: Patz cochaired the health-expert panel of the first US National Assessment on Climate Change and was a convening lead author for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. For 15 years, he was a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. In 1994, Patz convened the first session on climate change for the American Public Health Association and authored the organization’s first policy resolution on climate change in 1995.

He has written more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and reports, and he has coedited two textbooks and a five-volume encyclopedia addressing the health effects of global environmental change. Patz organized the first climate-change/health briefing to an EPA administrator in 1997 and has been invited to brief both houses of Congress. He has won numerous awards for his work.

- See more at: http://www.uwalumni.com/event/global-hot-spots-clean-energy-society/#sthash.R0x9U2Fp.dpuf