Climate Change and COVID-19: Can this crisis shift the paradigm?

Speaker(s)

David Ackerly

Dean, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley, Professor, Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley, Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley, BIDS Faculty Affiliate

David Ackerly is the Dean of UC Berkeley's Rausser College of Natural Resources with joint appointments in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. His research interests include climate change impacts on biodiversity, integration of phylogenetics and ecology, and conservation biology. His research is used to inform strategies of biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change, with a focus on California parks and open space.

Daniel Kammen

Professor and Chair, Energy and Resources Group, Director, Center for Environmental Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, Founding Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL), BIDS Faculty Affiliate

Daniel Kammen is professor and chair of the Energy Resources Group at UC Berkeley, a professor in Goldman School of Public Policy, where he directs the Center for Environmental Policy, and a professor in the department of Nuclear Engineering. He is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL). He is an expert on energy systems and the science and policy behind climate solutions. He has a BA in Physics from Cornell University, and Masters and PhD degrees in Physics from Harvard. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has served on numerous National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Energy committees and advisory panels. Kammen has served as a contributing or coordinating lead author on various reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1999, and shared the IPCC's 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Váleri N. Vásquez

BIDS Alum – Data Science Fellow

Váleri N. Vásquez is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group, a former Moore/Sloan Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and a former research scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. Váleri’s research interests include the use of computational models to examine the environmental drivers and economic impacts of infectious diseases. She is currently studying questions relevant to the use of gene drive systems for malarial control. Prior to graduate school, Váleri focused on international and domestic climate change issues at the U.S. Department of State, the Center for American Progress, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She holds an MS from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from the College of William and Mary.

Kate O’Neill

Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley

Monday, April 27, 2020

Live Webcast
Berkeley Conversations: COVID-19
Climate Change and COVID-19: Can this crisis shift the paradigm?
Date: Monday, April 27, 2020
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM Pacific

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is skidding into recession. Reduced consumption and transportation also mean reduced CO2 emissions. From India to China to the United States, skies are blue and the air is cleaner and healthier in cities than it has been for years. The pandemic has caused seismic shifts in how we produce and consume goods and could open a path to a more sustainable future. Or, government bailouts and investments could double down on the fossil fuel economy, and set back efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change. This conversation will feature Berkeley researchers discussing the science and policy behind CO2 emissions and opportunities for a different path forward.

This event is sponsored by the Rausser College of Natural Resources.

David Ackerly is the Dean of the Rausser College of Natural Resources and has a joint appointment in the departments of Integrative Biology and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. His research is used to inform strategies of biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change, with a focus on California parks and open space.

Dan Kammen is Professor and Chair of the Energy Resources Group, and Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. He is an expert on energy systems and the science and policy behind climate solutions.

Kate O’Neill is Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She is an environmental social scientist and studies global political economies, climate change politics and more recently the global waste trade and the circular economy. Her recent book, Waste, was discussed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Váleri N. Vásquez is a PhD candidate with a designated emphasis in Computational Data Science and Engineering in the Energy and Resources Group under the Rausser College of Natural Resources. She is also a Moore/Sloan Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and a former research scholar in the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory. Váleri’s research interests include the use of computational models to examine the environmental drivers and economic impacts of infectious diseases. She is currently studying questions relevant to the use of gene drive systems for malarial control in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology under the School of Public Health.

The discussion is part of a live online video series, Berkeley Conversations: COVID-19, featuring Berkeley scholars from a range of disciplines.