Pardee Director Participates in ACS Forum on Climate Change

Anthony Janetos, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, participated in a session called “The Debate: How Do We Respond to Climate Change” at the 2015 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) National Meeting and Exposition on Tuesday, August 18. Prof. Janetos was joined by the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Peter Frumhoff, MIT’s John Reilly, and republicEn’s Alex Bozmoski for a wide-ranging discussion on climate change science and policy that included scientific research, public education, geoengineering, carbon pricing mechanisms, and more.

The participants offered their expertise as the ACS considers changes to its official position statement on global climate change. Prof. Janetos called the lack of a consistent price signal a “huge problem” for climate mitigation strategies and also described adaptation efforts as underfunded, while expressing skepticism about potential geoengineering solutions. He emphasized the importance of scientific bodies in confronting the climate change problem and encouraged the ACS to reach out to other societies in the scientific community. He also cautioned the ACS not to commit to particular policy solutions, but rather to focus on demonstrating its strong scientific knowledge and conveying the scale of the problem to the policy community.

The session, which was attended by about 75 guests, was part of the ACS’s 250th national meeting, taking place over the course of five days at several venues across Boston.

Prof. Janetos is an internationally recognized expert on climate change and its impacts. Posts about other talks he has given can be found here and here.