American Geophysical Union experts available to comment on the Fourth National Climate Assessment

23 November 2018


WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Global Change Research Program today released the Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States (NCA4 Vol. II).

The report is an authoritative assessment of the impacts of climate change on the U.S. and its territories, and was written to help decision-makers, utility and resource managers, public health officials, emergency planners, and other stakeholders better understand the effects of climate change on the United States. This new report builds on the 2017 Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), Volume I of the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

Read a summary of the report written by some of the report’s authors on Eos.org and a statement about the report from AGU Executive Director and CEO Chris McEntee on From the Prow.

Several AGU scientists are available to comment on the report and the science behind it (see experts for the media below).

AGU will also hold several scientific sessions on the report and its key findings at the upcoming AGU Fall Meeting being held 10-14 December in Washington, D.C. These sessions include:

Members of the media can find additional information about the Fall Meeting, including registration information, on the Fall Meeting Media Center.

Experts for the media:

Kristie L. Ebi is Professor and Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington. Her areas of research include the health risks of and responses to a changing climate, including the adverse health outcomes associated extreme weather and climate events, infectious diseases, poor air quality, and undernutrition. Her research also includes designing, implementing, and evaluating adaptation options, and the health co-benefits of mitigation policies and technologies.  She is the chapter lead author for the NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 14: Human Health.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (206) 920 7317

Kate Gordon is an expert at the intersection of climate impacts and economic growth, who consults to a variety of NGOs including as a Fellow at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, and a Senior Advisor to the Henry M. Paulson Institute. Gordon’s areas of interest include the regional economic impacts from physical climate risk, policy drivers to spur climate mitigation and adaptation, and the economic development potential of resilience and restoration strategies. She is an author of the NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 28: Reducing Risks Through Adaptation Actions.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (510) 501-7075
Note: Kate Gordon is unavailable on December 17 and 18.

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist, a Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on understanding what climate change means to human and natural systems at the local to regional scale. She is the lead author of NCA4 Vol. I, Chapter 4: Climate Models, Scenarios, and Predictions; a co-author on the NCA4 Vol. I Executive Summary, Chapter 6: Temperature Changes in the United States, and Chapter 15: Potential Surprises: Compound Extremes and Tipping Elements; and the chapter lead author for the NCA4 Vol. II Chapter 2: Our Changing Climate.
Email: [email protected] (Laura James, assistant)
Phone: +1 (806) 834-8665

Anthony Janetos is the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Earth and Environment, Chair of the Department of Earth and Environment, and Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University.  His research interests are climate change impacts, adaptation, and multiple stresses, and he is currently doing research on climate change and food security.  He is an author of NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 17: Sector Interactions, Multiple Stressors, and Complex Systems.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (617) 358-4002

Victoria Keener is a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i., She has expertise on climate change impacts across diverse Pacific Islands, hydrological projections in the islands, and working with natural resource managers to incorporate climate science in decision-making. Victoria also serves as a member of the Climate Commission for the City of Honolulu’s Resilience Office. She is the chapter lead author for NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 27: Hawai‘i and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (808) 944-7220

Andrew Pershing is the Chief Scientific Officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, ME. Andrew’s areas of interest include climate impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries, and protected species; marine heatwaves; and climate adaptation in marine resource management. He is best known for identifying the remarkable warming trend in the Gulf of Maine and its impact on the cod and lobster fisheries. He is the chapter lead author for the NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 9: Oceans and Marine Resources.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (207) 333-9420

Joel B. Smith is a Principal Scientist/Associate at Abt Associates in Boulder, Colorado. He has more than 30 years of experience in climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation policy. He has been an author on two previous National Climate Assessments and on three reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Smith is the chapter lead author on the NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 16: Climate Effects on U.S. International Interests.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (303) 249-2204

Michael F. Wehner is a senior staff scientist in the Computational Research Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Wehner’s current research concerns the behavior of extreme weather events in a changing climate, especially heat waves, intense precipitation, drought and tropical cyclones. He has also written extensively on future climate projections. He is a lead author on NCA4 Vol. I chapter 8 and an author on chapters1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9, as well as an author of NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 2: Our Changing Climate. He was previously a lead author for the 2nd and 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessments and the 2013 Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is currently a lead author on the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (415) 305-1044

Donald J. Wuebbles is the Harry E. Preble Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois. Wuebbles is an expert in atmospheric physics and chemistry, with more than 500 scientific publications related to the Earth’s climate, air quality, and the stratospheric ozone layer. On climate, his research especially relates to analyses of the effects of climate change on severe weather. He co-led the Climate Science Special Report, Volume I of the 4th U.S. National Climate Assessment, as well as being an author on several chapters, and was an author on NCA4 Vol. II, Chapter 2: Our Changing Climate.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 (217) 244-1568 (office); +1 (217) 840-0100 (mobile)

Additional experts from the 2017 Climate Science Special Report (Volume 1 of the fourth National Climate Assessment) and other climate-related topics can be found in the AGU Newsroom.

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