The Yale School of Public Health’s newly formed Climate Change and Health Initiative will hold its first symposium on Friday, April 8, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Winslow Auditorium at the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health building at 60 College Street.
The symposium will feature Dr. James Hansen, professor at Columbia’s Earth Institute who will be in residence at Yale for three days of events. Hansen directs the Program on Climate Science, Awareness, and Solutions at Columbia and was formerly director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of global climate change. His congressional testimony in the late 1980s raised awareness of the issue of climate change. His most recent scientific paper, published in the current issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, warns that global warming of even 2 degrees Celsius has the potential to trigger dangerous climate shifts in the coming decades. Hansen sees the recent Paris Agreement as inadequate to address the challenges posed by climate change.
The symposium will feature six 15-minute talks from 10:00 a.m. to noon, followed by a conversation and Q&A with Hansen:
High resolution climate models: predicting Lyme disease in New England
Srinath Krishnan, postdoctoral associate, Yale Department of Geology and Geophysics
Effects of prenatal exposure to temperature extremes on birth outcomes in China
Xi Chen, assistant professor, Yale School of Public Health
Health impacts of climate change: the role of climate action plans in reducing urban heat island effects
Kevin Lane, postdoctoral associate, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Health impacts of unconventional natural gas extraction
Nicole Deziel, assistant professor, Yale School of Public Health
Drought events and the risk of emergency room hospitalizations and mortality in the western U.S.
Jesse Berman, postdoctoral fellow, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Mobilizing public and political will to address interactions between climate change & food security
Lori Post, associate professor, Yale School of Medicine
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Conversation and Q&A with James Hansen
The Climate Change and Health Initiative is designed to train future public health leaders to search for innovative solutions to the growing health threats posed by climate change. The World Health Organization estimates that climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, mainly due to heat exposure, diarrhea, malaria and childhood malnutrition.
Dr. Robert Dubrow, professor of epidemiology and faculty director of this initiative, said that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would yield tremendous health benefits over and above mitigating the adverse consequences of climate change. These benefits include reduced particulate, ground-level ozone, and other air pollution resulting from decreased burning of fossil fuels; increased physical activity resulting from promotion of active transport; and healthier diets resulting from a shift from animal toward plant-based agriculture.
“The symposium brings together researchers from across the University addressing issues in climate change and health and also represents the culmination of the visit to Yale of James Hansen, our first ‘Climate Change Leader in Residence’ and a giant in the field of climate change. We thank our partners at the Yale Climate and Energy Institute for working with us to make Dr. Hansen’s visit possible,” he said.
Hansen will also speak at a Branford College Master’s Tea on Wednesday, April 6 at 4:00 p.m. in the Branford College Common Room, 74 High Street, New Haven, and will give a public talk titled “Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise and Superstorms: Evidence that 2o C Warming Could be Dangerous” on Thursday, April 7 at 4:00 p.m. in KGL 123 at the Kline Geology Laboratory, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. In addition, Hansen will hold informal discussions with students on “Energy and Climate Change: How Can Justice Be Achieved for Young People?” on Wednesday, April 6, 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in LEPH 216 in the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health (R.S.V.P.: http://tinyurl.com/YSPH-Hansen) and on Thursday, April 7, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in KGL 101 at the Kline Geology Laboratory (R.S.V.P.: ycei@yale.edu).
Hansen’s visit is co-sponsored by the Yale Climate and Energy Institute.