You are browsing the archive for Science Policy Conference Archives - Page 2 of 4 - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy.
June 6, 2014
Is Hazard Mitigation Really a Priority in Your Community?
By James Schwab, AICP Manager, Hazards Planning Research Center, American Planning Association There is a simple way to find out just how serious a priority hazard mitigation may be in your community. Can you find it in your comprehensive plan? If not, you already have a signal that, even if your community has adopted a local hazard mitigation plan under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, a requirement for eligibility …
June 4, 2014
Risky Business Brings New Message—and Messengers—to Climate Debate
By Kate Gordon, Executive Director, Risky Business Despite massive scientific evidence that climate change will have significant effects on the American economy, the business and finance world is still largely turning a blind eye to climate risk. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Farallon Capital founder Tom Steyer started the Risky Business initiative to change this dynamic and create a new shared understanding …
June 2, 2014
The Challenges of Seismic Mitigation in Oregon: Where Science and Policy Meet
By Jeff Rubin, Emergency Manager, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Tigard, OR We’re justifiably concerned about terrorism, but natural hazards still generate far greater risk in terms of number of incidents, geographic spread, casualties, and economic impact. On the positive side, Mother Nature is not an adaptive opponent (Gaiaism notwithstanding), which means that our actions to reduce natural-hazard impact can actually yield useful results. Earthquake Country has a distinctly different …
May 28, 2014
Increasing Disaster Resilience of Critical Infrastructure By Public/Private Partnerships Through Locally Funded Initiatives
By Mary Lou Zoback, Consulting Professor, Stanford University Friday, October 17, 2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the M6.9 Loma Prieta/World Series earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area at 5:04 PM. The shaking lasted 25 seconds. When it stopped, 62 people had lost their lives, largely the result of bridge and overpass collapse (43 deaths) as well as collapse of San Francisco homes built in a region …
May 22, 2014
Applying science to natural resource policy issues: Social science joins natural and physical sciences
By Jana Davis, Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Trust As AGU members, we generally focus on the contribution of physical and natural science solutions to policy questions. But sometimes an issue calls for us to step outside the boundaries of these “hard” sciences to the social sciences. Areas in which many of us tend to be less comfortable. And less trained. Watershed restoration and protection can be just such an issue. …
May 21, 2014
Elected Officials are Human, Too
By John Bwarie, Founder, Stratiscope Having served as staff for over a decade for three L.A. City Councilmen, as well as L.A. Mayor James Hahn, I’ve been on the receiving end of countless requests for support, meetings, and action from concerned citizens and interest groups. In 2010, my world was turned upside down when I started working with USGS scientists to inform policymakers on how science can be used as …
May 12, 2014
As West Antarctica melts, the urgency for climate change adaptation rises
By Lexi Shultz, Director of Public Affairs at the American Geophysical Union and Kat Compton, Public Affairs Intern As if the recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA) weren’t enough of a reminder of the ways in which human actions are changing our planet, new research published in the current edition of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) presents evidence that part of …
May 9, 2014
Tornadoes and Climate Change: Challenges in Interpreting the Record and Looking Forward
By Harold E. Brooks, Senior Research Scientist, NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory With the release of the new National Climate Assessment, the scientific community has put forward our best understanding of the changes that have occurred and are expected to occur as the planet continues to warm. Noticeably, little is said about tornadoes in this document. There’s good reason for this absence. Despite a wide variety of speculation in the online …
May 8, 2014
Science Confirms (Again) What Cities Already Know: Climate Change is Happening Now
By Carolyn Berndt, Program Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities Originally posted on CitiesSpeak.org The continuing drought in the west and wildfires burning in the plains are real world examples—happening right now—of what scientists say is evidence of climate change. Remember the floods in Colorado last year and Hurricane Sandy the year before? Those too are indicative of the kinds of extreme weather events the U.S. will face in …
May 6, 2014
The Climate Conversation Needs Your Voice
By Lexi Shultz, Director of Public Affairs at the American Geophysical Union Today, the White House released the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) third National Climate Assessment (NCA). This report, coming in at 1,300 pages and written by more than 300 authors (many of whom are American Geophysical Union members) is an impressive accounting of the many current and future effects of climate change across the country. The NCA …
