Humanity is inadvertently changing the climate with our use of fossil fuels, and the effects range from severe droughts and deadly storms to agricultural failures and a melting Arctic. Mitigation agreements have been unsuccessful so far, with the repeated failure of international treaties like Paris and Kyoto. Adaptation will be necessary, but will cost possibly trillions of dollars and cause the dislocation of millions of people. What if we had a third path? Can we fix the problem with technology?
Dr. Beth Chalecki is a professor of international relations and global environmental politics at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and a non-resident research fellow at the Stimson Center. Her expertise lies in the areas of climate change and security, and the intersection of science & technology and IR. She was the Visiting Mellon Scholar for Environmental Studies at Goucher College, and has published over 20 books, articles, and book chapters on diverse topics such as climate change and Arctic security, environmental terrorism, climate change and international law, public perceptions of environmental issues, and water in outer space. She has also taught at Boston College, Boston University, California State University – Hayward and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and worked for think tanks and the governments of two countries. She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, an M.Sc. in Environmental Geography from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. in International Affairs from Boston University.
Dr. Chalecki will highlight the national security threats that climate change poses, and talk about some climate modification techniques called geoengineering. Can we bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere before it has a chance to warm the earth? Can we pull CO2 and other greenhouse gases straight out of the air? And if we could do this, who gets to decide where to set the global thermostat?