Climate Change Seminar at the Middletown Library September 20th

(hosted by the Middletown Democratic Environment Committee)

The panel of experts:

Thomas L. Delworth is a Research Scientist and Group Leader in the Climate Change, Variability and Prediction Group at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). He is also a Lecturer at Princeton University in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program.  Dr. Delworth has played a key role in the development of several generations of climate models at GFDL. His research largely focuses on decadal to centennial climate variability and change through the synthesis of climate models and observational data. On these time scales the behavior of the climate system is a mixture of natural variability and the response of the climate system to changing radiative forcing induced by changing greenhouse gases and aerosols. Understanding the natural variability of the climate system on decadal scales is critical to our ability to detect climate change, and to understand the processes responsible for observed change from the global to the regional scale. Dr. Delworth has served on a number of national and international committees, and is an author of more than 90 scientific papers.

Arun Chaddha:  I graduated in 1995 from Western New England College with a BSBA in Engineering Management.  In 2009, Shannon Martiak and I started Solar Mite Solutions with the goal of helping both residential and commercial clients lower their carbon footprint while reducing their electrical energy costs. Additionally, we have incorporated Energy Audits, Energy Management Systems and Lighting Solutions to help reduce the additional consumption of electrical and carbon fuel that is incurred by the structure, thus further reducing the overall effect on the environment.

Joseph Robertson is a visiting instructor in Spanish language and humanities at Villanova University, where he is also the creator and coordinator of GreenNOVA.org online community for environmentally sustainable projects, and organizer of the ClimateTalks.info roundtable discussion series. He is founder and director of the Hot Spring Network, a social-networking innovation project aimed at brainstorming paradigm-shift solutions, ProjectQuipu.net, a user-made global economic forum that seeks to find new ways to assess the real economic value of intangibles, and to propose generative policy solutions that empower individuals and communities.  Through his volunteer work with the non-partisan, non-profit organization Citizens Climate Lobby, he advocates for sustainable energy and climate policy on Capitol Hill. In September 2010, he produced the report Building a Green Economy: The Economics of Carbon-pricing and the Transition to Clean, Renewable Fuels for Citizens Climate Lobby. The report is available in print and online and is distributed to elected officials and to organizations across the United States. All of his projects can be accessed through the website - PoetEconomist.com.

Jan Dash has a PhD in theoretical physics from UC Berkeley, and has published over 50 papers in scientific journals. He was Directeur de Recherche at the Centre de Physique Théorique CNRS in Marseille, France. He is currently Visiting Research Scholar at Fordham University and Adjunct Professor at the Courant Institute NYU. Jan is the UU-UNO Climate Initiative Chair and Managing Editor of their Climate Portal at http://climate.uu-uno.org/.  He is a Matchmaker for the Climate Science Rapid Response Team whose goal is to provide authoritative scientific answers to media questions. Jan is the author of the popular “one-liner” responses to climate contrarian/denier/faux-skeptic fallacies. He was the Editor of the Climate Statement Summary and Recommendations to Governments of the UN Committee on Sustainable Development (Co-NGO, NY), delivered to leaders at the Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban Climate Conferences. Relevant to the economic impacts of global warming, Jan has worked for 25 years in quantitative risk management at various financial institutions, and wrote a book on the subject.  

Pallone Announces Over $500,000 For Job Safety Training, Pollution Prevention Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. Thursday announced over half a million dollars in federal grants that will help create and maintain jobs, improve worker safety and prevent pollution in the region. The Department of Labor allocated $348,000 to two local organizations that will support in-person, hands-on training and educational programs for workers and employers in industries with especially high injury and fatality rates.

“Employees should not have to worry about their lives while they are on the job,” said Pallone. “Worker safety is the best it has ever been, but that doesn’t mean we can’t always do more to prevent accidents on the job. I’m glad to see this money go toward training that will save lives.”

Rutgers University received $180,000 that will fund hazard prevention training and materials to limited-English, low-literacy, young and hard-to-reach workers employed in the warehouse and light production industries. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey received $168,000 to update training materials and provide training on the use of fall protection in the construction industry.

Additionally, EPA awarded two grants totaling $200,000 to Rutgers to reduce the University’s carbon footprint. The first grant of $50,000 will facilitate the Center for Advanced Energy Systems implementation of a smart electrical metering system on the Busch and Livingston campuses in Piscataway. The second grant for $150,000 will help the university recruit high school students as “Water Champions” to lead water conservation changes throughout their communities. Both grants were part of approximately $4 million in grants EPA awards each year aimed at prevention pollution across the nation.

“As one of the largest universities in the region, it’s significant that Rutgers is working hard to make its carbon footprint small,” said Pallone. “Rutgers is working hard to lead the way on pollution prevention and I hope other educational institutions and localities will follow its lead. Protecting the environment also keeps and creates jobs in the area, which continues to be one of my highest priorities.”