2001-2002
The Climate Talks Project
William Moomaw and
Timothy C. Weiskel
Harvard, Fletcher School, Tufts
Copyright, ©, 2002, Timtohy C. Weiskel
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Harvard
Seminar on Environmental Values 2001-2002 The Climate Talks Project
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| The Challenge Official negotiations to reach a worldwide climate agreement have come to a standstill as far as the United States is concerned. Meetings in November 2000 in the Hague, Netherlands adjourned without binding governmental commitments, and the administration in Washington, D.C., announced that the United States would not sign or support the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, European governments have reached a measure of accord with other countries around the world, but the country providing the largest single contribution to global atmospheric carbon emissions has declined to join with other countries to commit to reducing those emissions. Despite stalemate on this issue within the United States government there is a growing sense of urgency that something must be done. It is now clear that global climate change will affect the entire human community, engendering large scale and profound adjustments in human social, economic and political organization in the years and decades ahead. For this reason responsible scientists and informed citizens in the United States are recognizing the urgency of fashioning new mechanisms to foster open discussion and inform public understanding of global climate issues.
Voices from Europe, India and the Third World have made it
clear as well that there is a need for a stable, reliable, and internationally
respected forum to continue a wide range of The challenge we face as a human community is two-fold. First, we need to establish reliable and credible mechanisms to foster the wide scale dissemination of the growing scientific knowledge about our global climate condition and its social and public health implications. Second, in the absence of governmental leadership within the United States, institutions of civil society need to forge new platforms to foster and sustain responsible climate talks. The Response
The Climate Talks Project will convene monthly seminar sessions during the academic year, starting in October 2001. The objective will be to update participants through the Seminar sessions and a supporting web-site on the latest scientific evidence concerning climate change and its likely social and public health impact. Further, the Seminar will serve as a means to share the growing information about the practical initiatives that are being launched around the world to cope with climate challenges. At this point when it seems official negotiations are not materializing, it is all the more important that institutions of civil society sustain and extend public discussion of the challenges before humanity. The Climate Talks Project will provide an important platform and vehicle to maintain informed and serious exchange between all parties on these serious issues facing humankind. A particular effort will be made to provide a forum through the Climate Talks Seminar Series for voices from European and Third World scientists, citizen groups, and non-governmental organizations to help expand public understanding of global climate problems and proposed solutions. Further Resources:
On a global level, a link is provided to the Climate Change Campaign of the international non-governmental coordinating group known as OneWorld.Net. In addition, a link is provided to UN Wire providing daily updates from the United Nations Foundation. Finally, in order to encourage local action on these important global issues a link to the calendar of ongoing events -- published and updated weekly by the Cambridge Climate Coalition -- is provided at the bottom of the right hand column.
A 200-metre thick Antarctic ice shelf larger than the American state of Rhode Island and weighing 500 billion tonnes has broken apart in less than two months. New Initative: |
See NYT-Editorial, June 3, 2002 Yahoo News - Kyoto Protocol Yahoo News - Global Warming Yahoo > World > Global Warming Yahoo > World > Global Warming Archive OneWorld.Net Climate Change Campaign ![[ UNWire: Daily Global News Summary ]](unwire_dark_icon1.gif){kind=small}
Daily News Update from UN Foundation Cambridge Climate Calendar (Massachusetts Area) [Click here to subscribe to the Calendar; (send blank email) ] Tufts Climate Initiative Climate Action Network GlobalChange.Gov Gateway to Global Change Data News US Global Change Research Proogram Global Change: A Review of Climate Change & Ozone Depletion
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Fall Semester 2001
Accredited Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs)
Accredited Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
United Nations Secretariat and bodies, specialized agencies and related organizations
Climate Talks Seminar Series -- 2001-2002
| October 10
Wednesday |
Ross Gelbspan, Investigative Journalist &
Author The
Heat is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription,
will speak on the topic: "Toward A
Real Kyoto Protocol?"
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For information call 617-496-5208 |
| November 14 Wednesday |
Professor William Moomaw,
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University will moderate a teleconference
panel of experts to discuss: "Negotiating the Climate
Treaty COP 7 and Counting: Moving Forward or COPing out?"
[Background readings by panel participants, Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna, Deputy Director at the Woods Hole Research Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts "No Time for Complacency" Earth Times News Service, 2 November 2001 and Professor William Moomaw, "Global Warming, Climate Change and Sustainability."[PDF Format]. |
For information call |
| [December 12 Wednesday] |
The scheduled Seminar meeting for Wednesday, 12 December has been postponed until January 2002. The schedule will be posted below when the arrangements are finalized. |
Tim_Weiskel@Harvard.Edu |
| January | [Session Cancled] | |
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Thursday |
Dr. Michael L. Charney, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN);Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Green Building Coalition; Publisher, The Cambridge Climate Calendar,"Climate Protection from the Grassroots: Massachusetts’ Prodigal Case" | 4:00 - 6:00 PM - Teleconference
Room, 42 Church Street, 2nd Floor.
For information call |
| March 28 Thursday |
Paul Epstein, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Mike Connor, New England Aquarium, Peter Frumhoff,Union of Concerned Scientistsand Caroly Shumway, New England Aquarium, "Climate and Oceans: The Citizen-Scientist Response." | 4:00 - 6:00 PM - Teleconference
Room, 42 Church Street, 2nd Floor.
For information call |
| April 18 Thursday |
Sir Crispin Tickell, GCMB KCVO, inaugural Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, "Climate Change: What Is Happening?" | 4:00 - 6:00 PM - Teleconference
Room, 42 Church Street, 2nd Floor.
For information call |
climate talks. Governments may be reluctant to take the lead on these issues,
but other important social institutions are responding to the global challenge
that climate change represents. Universities, civic organizations, business
and environmental groups each bring a range of legitimate concerns and unique
insights to the climate debate. 
