But some highlights:
Dick Peltier gave a talk on melting ice sheets, what is causing it to happen, and what the implications are (for instance, when the west antarctic ice sheet melts sea level will rise in the northern hemisphere because the ice sheet exerts such a large gravitational pull that it holds significant sea water to the south). What I found most fascinating about this talk was Peltier's detailed but clear explanation of how scientists know what the know about the melting through their use of Satellite gravity measurements, and how they correct for land that is still rising since the weight of ancient glaciers melted away. Oh right, and it's also pretty fucking scary to consider the implications of imminent sea level rise, but being scared is somewhat the new normal when you're learning about climate change.
Jim Prall spoke about his work to gauge the credibility of climate change deniers by building a database of climate scientists, their position on climate change, and their citation index. In a nutshell, his results suggest that most of the scientists who are climate change deniers haven't published all that much in the way of climate science compared to the those who accept climate change (that's an understatement, check his very cool visualisation of the results). Prall also gave a brief rundown of important books to read, some thoughts on why people are unconvinced about climate change, and pointed out the excellent resource for debunking climate change myths, skepticalscience.com.
John Streicker spoke about his work in northern Canada to make plans to adapt to the changing climate. "In the north, climate change is here", he said. I was so fascinated by his talk and his pictures of the north that I stopped taking notes, unfortunately. He spoke about the sorts of change that is happening (for instance, ice melting three months earlier than expected -- which is a real issue for the people who rely on it for hunting and fishing), and some of the work he is doing to create a carbon neutral community so that -- and I really love this -- they will have the moral authority to ask others to reduce their emissions. Also, I am now in love with the north.
Ronald Plain spoke about the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia and the terrible pollution they have to deal with, the effects of climate change, and the actions they've taken. But actually, his talk wasn't about that; it was about the need to respectfully engage in activism; it was about how people and organisations with the good intentions to help end up taking poor actions because they don't listen to the people they are trying to protect. But, I'm not doing his message any justice: I was again paying too much to his speech to take many notes.
Adrianne Mugnatto-Hamu spoke to the question of whether nuclear power is a feasible alternative to fossil fuels. Her main point was the insight, taken from Joshua Pierce and Mark Jacobson, that the very high cost and very long time to construction (10-19 years) makes switching impractical. Instead, she suggests that we invest the money (including the money the government pays in liability insurance for nuclear power plants) into renewable energy sources (wind being one of the best options in terms of cost and time to construction).
Lastly, Ralph Torrie gave a really excellent talk (both content and style) on the history of our attempts to change energy policy during the 1970s energy crisis, and how the economic policies used to get out of that crisis do not work for the current energy crisis, but we're using them anyhow! The essence of his point is that in the 70s the solution was to increase efficiency and reduce demand enough to relieve the price pressure, but the current problem isn't about price at all: it's about the need to reduce absolute carbon emissions. What Torrie says is that ultimately this is an issue that isn't economic so much as it is moral. In other moral issues, like child labour and murder, we don't use economic instruments (like carbon tax or cap and trade) to solve the issue, we use regulation and enforcement and that's what we need to be doing here too. Huzzah.
Ronald Plain spoke about the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia and the terrible pollution they have to deal with, the effects of climate change, and the actions they've taken. But actually, his talk wasn't about that; it was about the need to respectfully engage in activism; it was about how people and organisations with the good intentions to help end up taking poor actions because they don't listen to the people they are trying to protect. But, I'm not doing his message any justice: I was again paying too much to his speech to take many notes.
Adrianne Mugnatto-Hamu spoke to the question of whether nuclear power is a feasible alternative to fossil fuels. Her main point was the insight, taken from Joshua Pierce and Mark Jacobson, that the very high cost and very long time to construction (10-19 years) makes switching impractical. Instead, she suggests that we invest the money (including the money the government pays in liability insurance for nuclear power plants) into renewable energy sources (wind being one of the best options in terms of cost and time to construction).
Lastly, Ralph Torrie gave a really excellent talk (both content and style) on the history of our attempts to change energy policy during the 1970s energy crisis, and how the economic policies used to get out of that crisis do not work for the current energy crisis, but we're using them anyhow! The essence of his point is that in the 70s the solution was to increase efficiency and reduce demand enough to relieve the price pressure, but the current problem isn't about price at all: it's about the need to reduce absolute carbon emissions. What Torrie says is that ultimately this is an issue that isn't economic so much as it is moral. In other moral issues, like child labour and murder, we don't use economic instruments (like carbon tax or cap and trade) to solve the issue, we use regulation and enforcement and that's what we need to be doing here too. Huzzah.
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