Global warming: Science, economics, politics

College Station – The science, economics and politics of global warming will be the focus of a Texas A&M University conference Friday (April 6) aimed at providing policy makers with an objective, non-technical analysis of the present and future implications of climate change.

Featured speakers are experts on the topic of global climate change from the diverse fields of botany, climatology, economics, systems modeling and political science. The highlight of the conference will be a roundtable discussion featuring a collection of individuals with broad policy experience and international perspectives, says Texas A&M economics professor and coordinator of the conference James M. Griffin.

Leading scientific and economic experts from Texas A&M, Duke, Stanford and Yale will speak on subjects ranging from weather patterns to economic damages resulting from global warming. The conference will result in the fourth volume in the “Economics of Important Public Policy Issues” series published by the University of Chicago Press. The volume will serve as a handbook on global climate change that will be readily accessible to policy makers.

Gerald North, head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M, will speak about the likely effects of the most probable CO2 (carbon dioxide) growth path on temperature, sea level and rainfall patterns, among other topics.

Stanford University Professor of Economics Lawrence H. Goulder will comment on assessing economic damages resulting from global warming. Much of Goulder’s research explores the potential to achieve environmental protection at relatively low cost through alternative market-based policies. William H. Schlesinger, a biology professor at Duke who holds a joint appointment in the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences of the Nicholas School of Environment, will discuss greenhouse gases and the carbon cycle.

The conference, sponsored by Texas A&M’s Department of Economics and the Bush School of Government and Public Service, will be held at the Presidential Conference Center on the Texas A&M campus.

For more information regarding the conference schedule, visit http://bush.tamu.edu/research/eppp/2001/ or contact Cindy Lucas at 979-862-8820.