
From heatwaves to droughts, floods, and wildfires, our warming planet is precipitating more extreme weather and environmental disasters. The effects are both local and global. These climate extremes threaten human health and communities, fragile ecosystems, and the delicate balance of our planetary systems. By disrupting the carbon cycle, droughts and heatwaves may even be accelerating climate change. What are the implications for local communities, public health, and our planet as a whole? And how can policies be put in place to mitigate the damage?
Join a diverse expert panel for a fireside chat on climate extremes. We will explore their causes and effects, the specific role of wildfire smoke in human health, and the role of communities and policymakers in shaping effective adaptation and mitigation strategies, among other topics. The discussion of leading academic and policy experts will be followed by a networking reception.
Program
- 5:00pm – Doors open
- 5:30pm – Introduction
- 5:40pm – Fireside Chat
- 6:15pm – Q&A
- 6:30pm – Reception
- 7:30pm – End
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
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Boston
5:00PM
Speakers
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Bio
Sonia I. Seneviratne
Professor, ETH ZurichSonia I. Seneviratne is a Full Professor at the Dept. of Environmental Systems Science and Head of Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland. She investigates processes leading to droughts and heatwaves, the impact of land processes and land cover changes on regional climate, and their changes with global warming. Prof. Seneviratne also currently serves as an elected Vice-Chair of Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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Bio
Mary B. Rice
Director, Harvard Chan C-CHANGEMary B. Rice MD MPH is the director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) and the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a pulmonary critical care physician and the director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Institute for Lung Health, where she is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
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Bio
Maria Ivanova
Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern UniversityMaria Ivanova is the Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. She focuses on international environmental institutions, environmental sustainability, and the science-policy interface. The author of The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty (MIT Press 2021), she has published on global environmental governance, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals, among other topics. Her work has appeared in Nature, Sustainability, Ethics & International Affairs, Global Policy, Global Environmental Politics, Global Governance, and elsewhere.
Moderator
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Bio
Justin Worland
Senior Correspondent, TIMEJustin Worland is a senior correspondent at TIME in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He received Covering Climate Now’s inaugural Climate Journalist of the Year award in 2022, among other awards. He is the Outrider Foundation fellow at TIME.