BU Now » climate change

UN “Rio + 20″ preparations under way

Dick Taffe — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:17:32 +0000

Preparations have begun at the United Nations for the global sustainable development summit to be held in Brazil in 2012, with the “Rio + 20″ summit to mark the 20th anniversary of the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro which was held 20 years after the 1972 environmental conference in Stockholm. International relations Professors Adil Najam, director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and Henrik Selin, a research fellow at the Center, write in a New Strait Times commentary that sustainable development is the key to a “Rio + 20″ agreement.

“They should seek to craft a global new deal for sustainable development; a deal that could finally help bridge the North-South divide by tackling poverty as well as over-consumption, environmental degradation as well as social justice, and greenness of the economy along with sustainable livelihoods.”

Contact Adil Najam, 617-358-4000, anajam@bu.edu; Henrik Selin, 617-358-2590, selin@bu.edu

BU Study: Changes in Store for Northeast Summers

Kira Jastive — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:30:37 +0000

A new study from Bruce Anderson, Ph.D., of Boston University’s Dept. of Geography and Environment has found that the summertime conditions in the Northeast have the potential to change dramatically as the century progresses.

According to Dr. Anderson, the study found “there is the threat that conditions across the Northeast are going to become significantly drier. In addition, they will become significantly warmer. More worrying though, is the health-related changes in the heat index for our region, which captures days with both high temperatures and high humidities.”

Anderson explains that not only does the average summertime heat index increase significantly – by up to 4C (7F) – but so do the number of potentially-threatening “extreme caution” days (where the heat index exceeds 90F). In fact, for the highly-populated Northeast megapolis stretching from NYC to Boston, over half the days during summer are expected to exceed the “extreme caution” value; and, the “extreme caution” value has the potential to become the norm for the region.

Similar studies carried out in parallel with this one suggest that the summertime climate of Massachusetts will become more and more like that of the deep South (Georgia and Florida) as the century progresses.

The research appears in the April issue of Climatic Change.

Contact: Bruce Anderson, 617-353-4807, brucea@bu.edu

The G-8 agenda

Tom Testa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:49:17 +0000

G-8 website

As President Obama joins the leaders of the world’s top eight economies at the G-8 summit in Italy, the success of this gathering is already being debated. The world economy and climate change are top agenda items the leaders will tackle. Available to dicuss what kind of outcome we can expect from the G-8 is Kevin P. Gallagher, professor of international relations and an advisor on trade and development policies to a number of national governments, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations. Gallagher can be reached at (617) 353-9348 or kpg@bu.edu

Senate fight over “cap-n-trade”

Dick Taffe — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:53:02 +0000

The upcoming Senate battle over President Obama’s climate-change bill will center on the “cap-and-trade” system to allow trading of pollution permits as emission levels are increasingly tightened. Energy risk-management expert Mark T. Williams, who teaches finance in the School of Management, says not to expect Senate approval until the economy rebounds and there’s a stronger U.S. industrial sector – probably not until 2010.

Contact Mark T. Williams, 617-358-2789, williams@bu.edu